I will take into consideration your opinions based on your stated experience with illegal drugs.

Sounds good. They are facts sir, not opinions.

I am not interested in a debate on the merits of legalizing marijuana. I will leave that to others. And, I can't assert it to be fact, but it appears to me that the current violence here on Ambergris Cay has more to do with other drugs. Either way, the pressing need is how to get rid of the bad guys ASAP.
Creating jobs and addressing social issues are great long term goals. The people getting shot and killed don't have a need for a job or a better society.

Some good points bywarren. There really isn't a quick fix through law enforcement though, because once this round of "bad guys" is gone more will come. Also human nature (greed) plays a big roll, and alot of the police may take payoffs to let certain people remain and deal drugs. You can say "well lets just get rid of the bad cops too" but it just doesnt work like that. It's a small country and alot of these guys on both sides of the law went to school together, or are related, etc.

As a citizen of Belize and someone that has spent a lot of time there, I don't see any viable solution other than legalization of weed, and decriminalization of small amounts of other "hard drugs" That would free up time and resources to focus on other violent crimes and theft.

Wow, not being a citizen of Belize and not spending enough time here, I would have never figured out that all it takes is to legalize weed to get rid of the bad guys and to reform the police.

Yeah, because the violent war on drugs has worked so well over the past 30 or so years! It's totally solved the problem!

All kidding aside the legalization thing its just part of the solution, along with treating drug addiction as a medical problem and not a criminal one. We could then take the money saved and invest it in infrastructure, job creation, etc. That way over time it would help lower other criminal activities and social ills not associated with the drug trade. There is no question that the illegal drug trade is fueling this gang violence, so taking that away would seemingly have a positive effect.

I am not kidding. I attended the latest crime meeting in San Pedrito. No one there, not the police or residents, talked of a solution being the legalization of drugs.
They need immediate solutions, not long term goals and that is what this topic should be about.
If you get run over by a drunk driver, you are more concerned about getting immediate medical treatment than long term programs to help alcohol addiction.

The closest parallel we have is teh Prohibition of Alcohol in the US. An Evangelically influenced Congress recognized the dangers of alcohol and it was prohibited by law (Volstead Act)to make, posses, use alcoholic beverages. This was the start of organized crime in the US and ushered in the most violent criminal era in the history of the US. Enterprising people took advantage and a huge industry developed around prohibition. Turf wars and wars with the police raged with no real victory by the police. This was the time of Al Capone and the the origins of most of the mafia crime families. A great many police and politicians were in the pockets of the Racketeers involved in the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages because the public wanted to drink and did so regardless of the law. This violent era was only stopped by the repeal of the prohibition of alcohol. It was still a very dangerous substance but the public wanted it and repealing the Volstead Act was the only way to stop the violence but only after organized crime was firmly entrenched in American society.
More recently, Mujica, out going president of Uruguay, was asked why he legalized weed, did he think smoking it was ok? He said most definitely not, smoking weed is bad, drinking alcohol is bad and smoking cigarettes is bad and no one should use any of them. He said that he legalized weed because there were 150,000 citizens that smoked it and he refused to let them be at the mercy of the cartels.

Diego Wade stole $140USD from me and my girlfriend. He is scum and is better spent floating away in the ocean rather than taking up space on the island