Pubdate: Thu, 04 Nov 2010 Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM) Copyright: 2010 The Santa Fe New Mexican Contact: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SendLetter/ Website: http://www.santafenewmexican.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695 THE MESSAGE IN MEXICAN MASSACRES More violence in Mexico -- just miles from where New Mexico bumps up against our neighbor nation, and this time taking the life of students who were U.S. citizens ... U.S. consular officials yesterday confirmed that Eder Diaz and Manuel Acosta, both from the University of Texas at El Paso, and both of whom lived in Ciudad JuA!rez across the Rio Grande, were citizens of this country. Acosta was nearing graduation from UTEP. Gunmen opened fire on their car Tuesday. They were the fifth and sixth U.S victims of violence in JuA!rez in the course of a week. Police say at least two of the earlier victims had criminal records, but have made no connection between the bloodshed Tuesday and the attacks on U.S. citizens that took place last weekend. Citizenship should have little to do with the ongoing tragedy that is Mexico today; in JuA!rez alone, 2,000 people have lost their lives so far this year in what, for the most part, is drug-related violence. Even if the death toll amounted to viciosos being killed by rival gangsters, the numbers and the violence should be alarming leaders of both nations sharing nearly 2,000 miles of border. But too often, innocent people are caught in the deadly crossfire, while yet other inocentes -- young children of gang families -- are becoming targets of retribution between drug-smuggling cartels vying for control of key cities the way norteamericano mobsters made war in our country during Prohibition. Out on the western end of the international boundary, Tijuana was only recently being praised by President Felipe CalderA3n for its pacification efforts. Then a couple of weeks ago, gunmen swooped in on a drug-rehabilitation center and killed 13 men. Far to the southeast, 15 others in drug rehabilitation were gunned down while working at a car wash. For all CalderA3n's touting of his law-enforcement and social-outreach solutions, he presides over a country sickened by growing greed for drug profits. Those profits come from feeding appetites this side of the border for still-illegal drugs. That brings us back to Prohibition - -- which ended against liquor in our country by constitutional re-amendment in 1933 after nearly 15 years. The day the two UTEP students were shot, California voters had a chance to end prohibition, at least where marijuana is concerned. The Golden State already has "medical marijuana," legal and peddled by storefront dispensaries in what has become a farcical scene in parts of many cities there. On Tuesday's ballot was Proposition 19 to legalize the weed. The proposition was roundly rejected -- by a surge of old-folk votes prompted by alarmist ads warning of a society about to run amok. So the medical-marijuana charade will still be played, but otherwise, dope remains illegal -- thus far more expensive than it should be. To support predilections or habits, homes in California and the rest of the country remain under siege from thieves -- and people walk the streets at risk of mugging and worse. Granted, legalization of drugs demands no-nonsense education as to their risks, as well as readily available treatment. The California campaign should have emphasized those needs, and programs to meet them through some of the revenue that taxed marijuana might have brought in. But keeping drugs illegal isn't working. Mexico is slowly coming to realize that. Will it take the spread of that country's violence into the U.S. to wake us up? - --- MAP posted-by: Matt