We all know that the driving force behind the Mexican and other south-of-the-border drug cartels is the incredible profit to be made in selling narcotics to “customers” in the United States. That drug distribution on our side of the border is in the hands of well-armed gangs who have no allegiance to police or other governmental authorities is old news. So is the fact that over 50% of those incarcerated in U.S. prisons are there for drug-related crimes (a quarter of our inmate population is incarnated for a violation of the actual drug laws themselves; the balance were impacted by drugs in some direct manner). We know that the weapons use south of the border, for the most part, come from the United States. As President Obama stated in February of 2009: “More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our border.”
The extent of the havoc, and our complicity in the weapons trade, from guns to body armor to explosives and RPG rounds, is staggering when you begin to examine the flow of arms. First, the U.S. government has beefed up Mexican authorities with the best they have to offer: “According to State Department documents, in 2009 Mexico bought nearly $177 million worth of American-made weapons, exceeding sales to Iraq and Afghanistan. That number includes $20 million in semi- and fully automatic weapons.” FoxNews.com, April 28th. But that seems as if we are helping the good guys fight the bad guys. There’s a catch: corruption in Mexico has pushed an unacceptable amount of legitimately supplied weaponry – intended for Mexican police and military authorities – into the hands of the cartels themselves. And thousands and thousands of Mexican civilians and governmental officials have died in this anguishing battle with the cartels.
Second, even government officials on this side of the border have allegedly been actively involved in their illicit weapons trade. Take for example the tiny little New Mexico border town of Columbus, a mere 1,800 residents, that sits a short distance from its opposite number in Mexico, the town of Los Palomas. It is in this narrow corridor that the infamous Pancho Villa crossed the border in his raid of March 9, 1916, where 18 Americans were killed. Well, a recent raid earlier this year produced some very different results: “[The raiders] were agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration. They led away in handcuffs Columbus’s mayor, police chief, village trustee and numerous others accused of smuggling guns, ammunition and body armor across the border to Mexican outlaws…
“The smuggling ring bought about 200 automatic weapons from a gun store in New Mexico and transported them across the border to Mexico, according to the indictment. Bullets and body armor were also purchased in New Mexico for use by drug traffickers in Mexico, prosecutors say… Blas Gutierrez, the jailed village trustee, is accused of arranging the deals with an inmate in a Mexican prison and using a Columbus police vehicle to transport weapons. Mayor Eddie Espinoza, who is related to Mr. Gutierrez by marriage, has already pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme and, on [August 25th], Police Chief Angelo Vega also entered a guilty plea in federal court in Las Cruces.” New York Times, August 25th. But this is one small story in a very big war.
Here are some “drug” numbers (that are changing by the second), as of August 26th, from DrugSense.org: The combined state and federal expenditures on the war of drugs so far this year is almost $27 billion. Over a million people have been arrested this year for violating drugs laws, one arrest every 19 seconds. An American is arrested for violating cannabis laws every 30 seconds. We’re on track to break our all-time records.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox: “Prohibition didn't work in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the apple… We have to take all the production chain out of the hands of criminals and into the hands of producers — so there are farmers that produce marijuana and manufacturers that process it and distributors that distribute it and shops that sell it ... I don't want to say that legalizing means that drugs are good. They are not good but bad for your health, and you shouldn't take them. But ultimately, this responsibility is with citizens.” Time.com, January 19th.
As the violence spreads northward from Mexico into the United States, isn’t it time for us to learn the harsh lesson of Prohibition, to heed Vicente Fox’ call, and structure a phased legalization of most narcotics, generating revenues on a massive scale … where we only have expenditures and death on a massive scale today?
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