Last year, more than 2,000 people were killed in Mexico in drug prohibition-related violence. This year, more than 200 have been killed in Tijuana alone.
But Mexico's drug-war deaths are not just rival traffickers caught by their competitors. In Nuevo Laredo in 2005, new Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez was gunned down hours after being sworn in. In January, Tijuana Deputy Police Chief Margarito Saldana Rivera, his wife and two young daughters, were killed in their home.
The proposed solution to the increased drug-war violence is more money, more soldiers and more guns. The Merida Initiative - or "Plan Mexico," as many are calling it - is a $1.4 billion "aid" package for Mexico and Central America (with the lion's share going to Mexico) with the intended purpose of bolstering Mexico's drug war.
Is there a solution to the problem of drug-cartel violence in Mexico (and the U.S.)? Absolutely. Just as the criminal syndicates controlling the flow of booze during Prohibition were cut off from their profits when the distribution of liquor was returned to legitimate businesses, the same can happen with our very few illegal drugs.
Legalization is a viable alternative. It has a historical precedent in the ending of Prohibition but often gets dismissed as the notion of radical pot smokers.
There is an organization comprised of former (and current) criminal-justice professionals raising a voice against the war on drugs. I am a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and I stand proud with the others who've served on the front lines of the drug war.
But Mexico's drug-war deaths are not just rival traffickers caught by their competitors. In Nuevo Laredo in 2005, new Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez was gunned down hours after being sworn in. In January, Tijuana Deputy Police Chief Margarito Saldana Rivera, his wife and two young daughters, were killed in their home.
The proposed solution to the increased drug-war violence is more money, more soldiers and more guns. The Merida Initiative - or "Plan Mexico," as many are calling it - is a $1.4 billion "aid" package for Mexico and Central America (with the lion's share going to Mexico) with the intended purpose of bolstering Mexico's drug war.
Is there a solution to the problem of drug-cartel violence in Mexico (and the U.S.)? Absolutely. Just as the criminal syndicates controlling the flow of booze during Prohibition were cut off from their profits when the distribution of liquor was returned to legitimate businesses, the same can happen with our very few illegal drugs.
Legalization is a viable alternative. It has a historical precedent in the ending of Prohibition but often gets dismissed as the notion of radical pot smokers.
There is an organization comprised of former (and current) criminal-justice professionals raising a voice against the war on drugs. I am a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and I stand proud with the others who've served on the front lines of the drug war.
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