AMERICANS ARE TO BLAME FOR THOSE KILLINGS IN MEXICO

The killing in Ciudad Juarez of two U.S. consular officials and the husband of one has highlighted the ongoing wars between Mexican drug cartels and between the cartels and Mexican security forces that have taken nearly 18,000 Mexican lives as that country enters the fourth year of its war on drugs. The killings appear to be most extensive in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas and even in the resort city of Acapulco.

The trade in illegal drugs is a multi billion dollar business. It has corrupted Mexican government officials and security forces. Several years ago, a DEA agent and an FBI agent working undercover together in Mexico barely escaped with their lives when they found their car surrounded by a dozen assault weapon-toting drug cartel gunmen, half of them dressed in police uniforms.

Many Americans, including some notable conservatives, blame the killings on our “War on Drugs” and advocate that we ‘decriminalize’ (a euphemism for ‘legalize’) marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other mind-altering substances. The decriminalizers are fond of comparing our laws against drugs to the prohibition of alcohol and the killings that prohibition spurred between American bootlegging gangs.

Comparing our laws against drugs with prohibition is like comparing apples and oranges. To begin with, prohibition was strictly a moral issue, never a health issue. While alcohol is a debilitating substance, it does not compare to the mental health hazards experienced by heavy drug users, including those who are addicted to marijuana. There are good grounds for NOT decriminalizing drugs in America.

Mexican officials blame the cartel wars and corruption on the insatiable hunger of Americans for mind-altering drugs. And you know what, THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! Americans spend billions of dollars every year buying illegal drugs, money that ends up in Mexico and fuels those wars between the drug cartels.

Yes, we Americans are to blame for those killings in Mexico! Those billions of dollars we spend on smoking, snorting and injecting illegal drugs could be put to much better use funding our schools, correctional institutions and infrastructure. Just don’t give me that crap about how much in taxes we would collect by legalizing drugs. That amount would be a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend to screw up our brains with mind-altering substances.