Pubdate: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR) Copyright: 2010 Lee Enterprises Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/HPOp5PfB Website: http://www.democratherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) LEGALIZATION WOULDN'T END NARCOTICS WARS It is customary to blame the Mexican drug violence on American addicts and casual users. The assumption is that if Americans would either legalize drugs or quit being stupid enough to use them, the big money would be gone from the Mexican trade, and the criminals would have no more reason to fight or to kill each other and innocent bystanders. That assumption and that rosy scenario is almost certainly wrong. The Mexican drug syndicates are not just people in business who have no choice but to resort to violence in order to protect their interests. They are in that business and they torture and kill people, and sometimes cut off their heads, because they are criminals of the worst kind. Suppose we take the money out of marijuana, meth, cocaine and heroin by stopping the drug war and letting dopers and junkies buy their stuff at the pharmacy or state liquor store. What are those criminals most likely to do? With their business gone, are they going to go back to school to learn a trade? Nursing? Welding? Are they going to use their accumulated wealth to go into irrigated farming? Will they open think tanks to study the sociological effects of drug prohibition? Will they just retire to the south of France? All their soldiers -- will they find work in the local economy? No, the most likely thing, since they are criminals and murderers on a mass scale, is that they will continue as criminals and murderers. They'll find some way to keep making masses of money in drugs, and if that doesn't work they'll find some other line of crime. So no, legalization does not hold much promise of ending Mexico's sufferings in the narcowars. The drug gangs will have to be defeated, taken out or put in prison in order for the killing to end. This is what the Mexican government is trying to do with its deployment of military troops. In the meantime, U.S. dealers, buyers and users of illegal drugs supplied from or through Mexico bear a heavy responsibility. Without them, the narco gangs might do other kinds of crime, but for now it is the U.S. market that keeps the gangs in cash. That's a heavy guilt they bear. They need to be held to account not just for breaking the law on controlled substances, but for fueling the deadly violence down south. (hh) - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom