Gang-ravaged Mexico stuck in weed ban as U.S. opens up

A man smokes marijuana during a rally organisers say is to inform citizens about the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana outside the Senate building in Mexico City, Mexico, September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican advocates for drug reform are voicing alarm about the country's widening gap with the United States on marijuana legislation, as criminal violence surges again south of the border.

Tens of thousands have been killed over the years in Mexico, on the front line of a U.S.-led war on drugs. The country's prohibitionist approach to marijuana is increasingly at odds with the United States, where liberalisation is advancing.