NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 25, 2016

Q: Reflecting growing Latin American disenchantment with the so-called War On Drugs, Mexico's president last week proposed legalizing marijuana-based medicines, raising the amount users can carry and freeing inmates on minor weed charges. Where is Mexico?

Circle the area on this map

Q: More than 100,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico in the last decade. Where else has drug gang violence killed thousands and prompted thousands of children to flee?

A. El Salvador

B. Guatemala

C. Honduras

D. All of the above

D. Under pressure from U.S. immigration officials, Mexico has turned back thousands of children fleeing violence from the expansion of Mexican drug gangs south into the Central America nations. Like nearly all of the region's illegal drugs, the fleeing children are headed for the United States.

Q: In an effort to weaken heroin-smuggling gangs, Mexico also is considering regulating poppy production to make legal pain reducing drugs. Which Asia Minor country cut illicit poppy production by switching to legal opiates?

A. Afghanistan

B. Myanmar

C. Turkey

D. Thailand

C. The majority of Turkey is on the Anatolian peninsula, also know as Asia Minor. Turkey was a major producer of illegal opiates before it managed to switch to legal production in the 1970s. But, some doubt Mexico could succeed because of its violent drug gangs and widespread police corruption.

Q: Which landlocked South American nation kicked out the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration several years ago and now allows farmers to grow small amounts of coca, the plant used to make cocaine?

A. Bolivia

B. Chile

C. Colombia

D. Uruguay

A. Bolivia allows the traditional use of chewing coca leaves as a mild stimulant. Colombia has stopped aerial spraying of coca. Chile now grows marijuana for medicine, and Uruguay legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Chile is on the Pacific; Uruguay is on the Atlantic: and Colombia borders both oceans.

Q: Leaders of the world's second largest nation are planning to legalize recreational marijuana use. What is the second largest nation by area?

A. Russia

B. Canada

C. Brazil

D. Australia

B. Canada's Liberal government will introduce legislation to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana in spring 2017. On United States' longest border, Canada is second in area only to Russia.