Schumacher-Matos Stands Up for Mexico and Legalization

I agree with the gist of this article (essentially, Mexico is not failing, but it's in bad shape in large part because of American drug consumption), but there are a couple of factual points here that bear questioning:

About 6,600 Mexicans were killed in fighting involving drug gangs last year, and alarms are going off in this country.

Where is this number coming from? The PGR says it was 5,600. Most media tallies are slightly less. How has what I will presume to be nothing more than a slip of O'Grady's finger turned into fact?

Second:

Two of our past three presidents...have tried drugs.

Of Clinton, Bush, and Obama, which hasn't tried drugs? I suppose this is because Bush has never admitted to doing drugs, but, unless I'm mistaken, nor has he denied it, and there's been plenty of reporting on the topic.