Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jun 2008
Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
Copyright: 2008 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Contact: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SendLetter/
Website: http://www.santafenewmexican.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695

DRUG WAR SQUABBLE AN ONGOING FRAUD

The cruel deception of the "drug wars" goes on: Just give us $500 
million more to spend on training and equipping Mexican police, said 
the White House drug-policy director last week, and you'll see progress.

Implicit in that pitch to Congress: If you don't approve that outlay, 
you're sabotaging the unending battle.

After all, there's fresh leadership in our neighbor nation; maybe the 
new guys won't just keep or waste the money while looking the other 
way when smugglers are shipping heroin, cocaine and the scourge du 
jour, methamphetamines ...

The negative response from some of the Senate's brightest minds is 
the right one -- but for the wrong reason: Vermont's Patrick Leahy 
objects to acting as "the White House's ATM."

The amount being called for is pathetically small for any serious 
offensive against the drug trade, so it's suspicious on that count 
alone. Then there's the Bush administration's unwillingness to call 
for accountability from Mexican President Felipe Calderon -- which, 
of course, would raise issues of sovereignty.

But all that plays into sub-plots of an ongoing tragedy -- one which 
has stricken so many families in Northern New Mexico and other parts 
of the nation.

Seems no one on Capitol Hill wants to confront a reality: Drug 
trafficking, in Mexico and everywhere else illicit narcotics are 
grown, processed and moved in America's direction, continues to 
thrive because this is where the stuff is consumed -- at whatever 
cost a protected market will bear.

Keep drugs illegal, make them more expensive by busting the 
occasional shipment, and the price goes up. Those controlling the 
supply grow richer; all the more capable of bribing everyone outside 
and inside our boundaries, from street cops to prosecutors. And those 
who can't be bought can be assassinated.

Meanwhile, to feed their habits, addicts will lie, cheat, steal, even 
kill. The law-abiding people and households of our country are 
violated -- and pay taxes for the privilege. In Mexico, more than 
4,000 people have been killed in drug-gang violence since Calderon 
took office and talked tough about drugs. More than 400 of the dead 
are cops, so in many places there's no law enforcement left.

Neither Mexico's government nor ours can buy enough cannon-fodder for 
this bogus war.

What Congress can do is invest in education, counseling and treatment 
- -- to catch up with, then head off, drug use. When those things are 
in place, de-criminalize drug possession; make the stuff available, 
free or cheap, at clinics. De-glamorize it -- and take away the 
profit motive so many vested interests have in drugs.

Who in Congress dares do such a thing?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom