Tough Habit to Break

If it is legal to buy guns in the US, it should also be legal to buy drugs.

Legalize pot. You take double-digit income out of these guys' hands and deal their empires a serious blow. Plenty of American growers could use the business.

Most of you express disdain for such activities. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that these drug lords such as Escobar rally up communities to fight against each other. While one town may got a whole hell of support the other nothing and unfortuantely everyone, enclufing women and children are killed. US economy does not help this situation it worsens it.

Why not a war on the socioeconomic conditions that lead to drug use and abuse? Could it be because this would eliminate too many laaw enforcement jobs? The US war on drugs is an illegal war against the poor and minority citizenry supporting the military-prison industrial complex. Don't believe it? How many police and correctional officers are enlisted military veterans who, in service to their country, developed such anti-social behavior as to be unemployable in private sector?

A "legally undeclared war". Those who complain about the current struggles between the cartels & the Mexican Army are not only naive but are ignorant. So what do you expect? Felipe Claderon to sit back and let be business as usual. At least he has male fortitude to stand up to these thugs and say enough is enough. These thugs are no better than Al Qiada terrorist, kidnapping, killing, and intimaditing the free press when they report on their illicit activites. Further more as far as I am concerned Calderon does not lack political legitimacy he was elected by popular vote by Mexicans such as my self.

it's all politic's,the liquor lobby lobbies against it,to legalize drugs would mean thousands of lost D.E.A. jobs,I WOULD RATHER HAVE SOMEONE HIGH ON WEED BEHIND THE WHEEL THEN SOME DRUNK

It's easy to say the government is winning an unwinnable war. Calderon lacking political legitimacy decided to declare war on drug trafficking without a robust strategy and the legal means to do so. The Mexican constitution forbids the deployment of the army -- as the government has done -- in peace time, and though Calderon has said that Mexico is fighting a war against drugs, he hasn't done it as the law provides.
Moreover, putting the army at the forefront in this "legally undeclared war" puts it at a great risk of being corrupted and of violating basic human rights as it has already happened.

As far as legalizing drugs goes, you have to get a majority of the people to agree with you for it to be legal. Either that or get a constitutional ammendment passed that says something like "The People's right to manufacture, distribute, and consume any substance they wish, shall not be infringed upon." This is unlikely, drug users are not that big of a constituency. And as a whole, they probably don't vote as much either. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the people who seek political office in this country are not necessarily the most principled bunch around. If there was an issue they thought they could win with, they would run with it. Drugs aren't that issue because most people don't want to be around drug users. Drug use makes people erratic. (So does alcohol use, but hey, enough people wanted to drink that they forced a constitutional ammendment repealing the prohibition ammendment). Also many of those who have used drugs in the past have come to the conclusion that it is a dead end lifestyle that will degrade your mental and physical health. So the number of people who would fight for drug legalization are few. There is a good argument that the cost to society in violence and incarceration is greater than the cost would be in increased usage if drugs were legalized. That may be, but I don't see a mass movement rising up out of the concept.

Call me cynical, but I think there is more to the story than just a war on drugs. Drugs bring a lot of money into Mexico. The article mentions a town in the Sierra Madres that looks more like Santa Barbara than what we typically think of Mexico. As President, why would you want to eliminate a large part of your GNP? The PRI ran Mexico from the time of the Mexican revolution until around 2001 when Vincente Fox of the PAN party won. The PRI used to keep a loose sort of order among the drug cartels in which a "plaza" was given to certain drug groups in order to allow them to conduct business as long as they followed certain rules. This was all done under the table and so was corrupt, but it kept somewhat of a lid on things. Felipe Calderon is of the PAN party (as was Vincente Fox, though Fox did not try to take on the cartels --who knows maybe he felt PAN wasn't strong enough yet). My cynical theory is that the war on the cartels is a war over control of the drug trade not an attempt to eliminate it. And as such is a symptom of Mexico's tranistion from a one party state into a more pluralistic state. I have no proof of this. Maybe its unfair to Calderon to even suggest it. And I'm no expert on Mexican politics. So take what I say with a grain of salt. It's my cynical view on human nature in general rather than Felipe Calderon in particular that leads me to interpret these events in this way.

I travel to Mexico often for business and vacation time. I like the country and the people. However, every time I go there I am always alert to the fact that Mexico can be a land of contradictions, it is laidback and easy to like and relax but also it can be a shadowy place, full of danger and distrust. This story illustrates that there are several things going on with this "Drug War". On the one hand, there is the story of drug traffic and the drug cartels, which is out of controll and rightfully needs to be attacked with the full force of the law and the military. No country can afford to have drug lords running and controlling the people, communities and the country. The next part of the story is the bad influience and curruption that the drug money has had on the local police. When law inforcement is currupt, noone is safe and everyone is hurt by it. Official curruption is probably more harmful than the drug cartels and the violence that drug trafficing brings to communities and a country. The last item about this story, is the longterm effect that a drug culture has on a people and their culture. Violence is a slow poison to a country that not only kills people but also the spirit of a nation. Just look at what has happened to Columbia, Afganistan, and some other countries in Asea. Once the outlaws take over a country, it takes many generations to rebuild.

Finally, the most compelling and revealing part of this story is that some drug prohabitions just make things worse. The world needs to take a hard look at possibly legalizing many of these drugs that are now illigal and controll and tax it like we do alcohol. Prohebition on alcohol in the early 20th century only created a lawless environment for criminal and organized crime to thrive. The same is happening today. Deal with the problems associated with drug use in the same way that we do with alcoholism and legelize pot and some of these other drugs. It will take away the high profit factor of illigal drug traffic and also reduce the crime that comes with it.

just legalize drugs and render them all impotent!

jtf1960, If all Mexicans are druggies, then why are they, and every other drug smuggler in the entire world, bringing their drugs into the US. Your need to look at the facts, and while you are at it, move your dumbass to Singapore, Americans like you drag the Standard of Living down down!