Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jul 2014
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Timothy Gawne

MEXICO'S PROBLEM IS POVERTY

Wesley Pruden's "A deadly enemy within exacerbating immigration 
crisis" (Web, July 21) suggests that much of the immigration crisis 
is a result of the war on drugs. With respect, I believe that is a 
mistaken view.

Like Mexico, Canada also shares a border with the United States, but 
it does not have a problem with drug-related gang violence - because 
most Canadians are prosperous enough to have better things to do.

If we legalized drugs or Americans stopped using illegal drugs, it 
would make the problems in Mexico and Central American worse, not 
better. Would all those unemployed drug-gang members just starve to 
death quietly? Not a chance. They would turn to kidnapping and 
piracy. Count on it.

Personally, I think the "war on drugs" has been stupid and a failure, 
but be careful what you wish for. Right now, getting rid of the 
demand for illegal drugs would remove an important safety valve.

The problem with Mexico is poverty. That poverty was deliberately 
created by the Mexican oligarchs through their policies of 
encouraging people to have more children than they can support, 
taxing honest labor and using the funds to bail out bankers who made 
bad investments, and allowing government-protected monopolies to 
crush the free market. Until these issues are addressed, there will 
be violence and crime there, drugs or no drugs.

TIMOTHY GAWNE Birmingham, Ala.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom