Video: Mexican Drug Shootout

This on-the-spot video of being in a Mexican drug gang shootout is very real. The video was linked in a New York Times story on the killing of a Mexican drug boss, Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen. And I'm sure that many lives and dollars/pesos were spent on getting this creepy guy, and I don't want to minimize that in any way, but isn't he just going to be replaced by someone else?

The problems in Mexico are systemic. As in, very rich gringos live in the country to the north and pay for the drugs being transited through Mexico. And as long as the United States consumes illegal drugs, there is going to be another drug dealer and his gang to transport and sell them to us.

So I leave you with the prefect prescription for ending the Mexican drug war; stop using the drugs they sell and stop selling them the guns to shoot at each other. Just saying.

Virginia is for Drug Dealers

The drug war devastation in Mexico is being directly linked to gun dealers in the United States. Those fun gun dealers are located in gun-friendly states like Virginia.

While drug addiction may be costing Mexicans their lives and Americans their families, we need to keep in mind that more than just drugs dealers are making money. Gun dealers are, too.

The Administration's proposal to search vehicles going into Mexico as well as coming from Mexico is a good one. Depriving the Mexican cartels of guns will take away much of its power and certainly reduce the harm to innocent bystanders. The drug wars themselves will not stop, just the form they take right now.

Aside from all that, if Americans stopped using drugs, there would be no drug war at all. Another idea is to decriminalize drug addiction and treat it instead. It's a good thought, especially since arresting people and putting them in prison hasn't worked since we started doing that in the 1950s. Treating addiction would do at least something towards addressing American demand for drugs. Not much, but at least something.

My idea is that everyone who is arrested for buying illegal drugs more than once has everything they own confiscated. Yes, that would unfairly burden the more affluent. But wouldn't that be a nice change for once?

Mexican Drug War, American Drug Use

Finally government officials are getting real about the cause of the drug trafficking coming through Mexico. It's the drug users in the United States.

If the United States would make American-grown pot legal, then a whole lot of people would not have to die. Yes, there are more drugs being trafficked from Mexico than pot, but that would be most of it.

I can't believe I've come to this conclusion. For years, I would snort with derision as some kid stood at a polling place on election day asking if I'd sign a petition to have pot legalization on the ballot.

And let's not forget the American guns used in all this Mexican killing (thank you, Virginia). And the American cash used to buy the drugs.

The Mexican drug war has its roots in the tastes and habits of the American people.

Failures of the War on Drugs

Do you really want to stop illegal drug use? Focus on demand here in the United States. If all our efforts and money were used to arrest Americans fueling the drug trade with dollars, then the war would be won.

The punitive measures used by the United States to stop the illegal use of drugs are being criticized by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. We are accused of weakening South American governments and their democracies because our policies cause more drug violence south of the border.

Since when are your governments our responsibility? Personally, I agree with the unnamed U.S. official in the article: there is violence because the overall trade is contracting, not expanding. Let's contract it a little bit more.



drugs, war on drugs, United States, latin america, Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, cocaine, DEA, drug enforcement agency