Since Felipe Calderon took office as President and declared open war on drugs the death associated with this struggle has reach the 22,000 deaths, while drug trafficking networks have penetrated the military lines, intimidate civil society and break diplomatic centers. The governments of United Sates and Mexico should consider legalization, not only because the war on drugs is a failure, but because is a moral mandate.
Among the thousands of dead are children, and high school and university students who had little to do with illegal activities, in Ciudad Juarez a command -which presumably was part of the Mexican army-, invaded the birthday party of a high school student and killed 14 young people aged between 15 and 20 years because they were wrongly associated with drug activity. The mother of two of the killed, claimed justice directly to the President and indicated that he was not welcome in to Juarez because government officials are totally incompetent in the region.
Shortly after this incident two students of one of the country's most prestigious universities were killed within the campus, not even the same Tecnológico de Monterrey that was the first research center in Latin America to have Internet access in 1989 and holds academic agreements with Georgetown and Harvard universities, have escaped the war. Both military and drug dealers were involved in the incident.
A Mexican newspaper could not express more clearly, Monterrey resisted the battle of indigenous people, the ravages of the Inquisition and the rebellion of the natives, but never before in recent history had lived an urban guerrilla warfare as the last days.
Harassment exerted by the drug dealers on the civilian population is intimidating, they self-claimed responsibility for murders, down curfews, established fake checkpoints where they kill without mercy, -in Durango they killed ten children and young people aged from 8 to 21 because refused to stop the car - and even turned to social networks like facebook and twitter to threaten the population that does not follow their rules.
The drug war has been declared as a common struggle between Mexico and the Unite States under Plan Merida -they coordinate institutional efforts and the U.S. Congress approved a $231.6 million budget to finance it for the 2010 fiscal year-, but only one is bleeding, for now, because the violence is being transferred to U.S. territory and drug traffickers already have killed three people linked to a U.S. consulate in Mexico.
So we have a Mexican government that cannot contain drug trafficking, with a civil society beset by drug traffickers and resentful with the authorities and a group of criminals who murder innocent people mercilessly. It has been demonstrated that declaring war on drug is more negative than positive. Few drug lords have been arrested, and despite the arrests, there is always someone willing to replace them, killing whoever is in the way. The war on drugs is a failure.
The Nobel economist Milton Friedman said that the ban does not reduce consumption and increase illegal actions because it criminalize narcotic activity, he presented the history case of the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, and indicated that alcohol always was available to people despite being illegal, nowadays so do drugs.
he federal cost to imprison drug-related criminals exceeded the $17 million per day and 6.2 billion in 2007 alone. So by criminalizing the activity the government is increasing public spending.
But drug use is not a political or economic issue, is a moral one, why person who uses something that only causes damage to itself it should be regarded as criminal?, Did not the same thing happens when someone chooses to eat a greasy hamburger instead of a healthy food?, of course, let’s not forget that the deaths associated with heart diseases far outweigh those associated with drug use.
The very bear of weapons, which are essentially designed to harm, whether in case of self defense, for recreational purposes or to commit a crime, is legal in this country, why is not smoking a joint?
Americans, initiate an open and intense debate on the legalization of drugs and end this war, not only because, as shown in Portugal, it could reduce the consumption in teenagers and increase the number of people looking for treatment, but because is a moral mandate, the United States is the main consumer of the world, be part of the solution. Initiate the discussion, innocent deaths could be reduced if you this, plus, legalization certainly would be good to the public deficit by reducing the cost of imprisoning criminals.
