Problems With War on Drugs

Drug war a problem on both sides of border

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Mexico's drug war is worsening. Its government is flooding trouble spots
with 45,000 troops - more than the United States has in Afghanistan -
but with little pause in killings that have left over 11,000 dead in
three years.

The turmoil - once a fight between violent drug gangs over smuggling
routes to the United States - may be shifting in a more dangerous
direction. The gangs are now opening up on the government itself,
attacking offices, killing investigators and threatening citizens who
speak out.

This month, Mexican President Felipe Calderon ordered more soldiers into
Ciudad Juarez, a major border town and drug entry point opposite El
Paso, to quell the violence. Closer to Mexico City, he faces trouble
from an upstart gang in his native state of Michoacan, where the bodies
of 12 federal agents were dumped on a back road, all of them tortured
and shot in the head. In response, he sent 5,500 troops to the region.

The war poses peculiar problems for the United States, both a worried
neighbor and a chief instigator. Washington can't send in military
helpers as it has in Colombia and other Latin countries because of
strong nationalist feelings in Mexico. So far the main lifeline is the
$1.4 billion Merida Initiative to supply military and other aid, though
that money is slow in coming. Also, efforts to curb U.S. gun sales to
drug gangs - a sore point for Mexican authorities - have done little.

Genuine help for Mexico - and other narco-hit nations - might better
come from an admission that drug appetites, not gangs, are the central
factor. All the helicopters, night-vision goggles and dog-sniffing car
searches can't stop the flood tide of marijuana, speed and cocaine
heading north. The government crackdown, welcomed by many Mexicans, is
now drawing criticism because of the army's rough handling of suspects
and innocent civilians.

In March, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly noted her
nation's responsibility. The killings, beheadings and bombings in Mexico
are due to "our insatiable demand for illegal drugs."

Her remarks should set the stage for a new anti-drug policy. It won't be
full legalization, a nonstarter in Washington. But it could lead to a
broader approach built on drug education, rehabilitation and other steps
to reduce demand.

It's a solution that's easy to ridicule and slow to produce results. It
will need help from anti-corruption efforts in Mexico and, because gangs
remain so strong, the crackdown must continue. But a costly, heavy-duty
interdiction policies alone won't do it.

Next month, President Obama is due at a North American summit in
Guadalajara, Mexico. He must include the drug war on his priority list.
The violence and human misery it is inflicting, on both sides of the
border, are unacceptable.

http://sfgate. com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi? f=/c/a/2009/ 07/26/EDJM18TTG6 .DTL

This article appeared on page A - 10 of the San Francisco Chronicle