Drug-war proponents are scratching their heads over what to do about the latest drug-war massacre in Mexico. They are considering three options.
Option 1. Have the Mexican military crack down even more fiercely than it already has during the past 10 years of fierce military drug warfare.
The problem with this approach, however, is that it has already led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens, made the mountain of official drug-war corruption within the Mexican government even higher, and converted much of the country into a hell-hole of drug-war violence.
Option 2. Send in the U.S. military and the CIA into Mexico.
Yeah! They’ll show those Mexican drug gangs how the cow ate the cabbage. Just ask the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. Bombs, missiles, shootings, arrests, indefinite detention, torture, raids, prison camps, kangaroo military tribunals, extra-judicial executions, warrantless searches, and state-sponsored assassinations.
Just be prepared for the deaths of countless Mexican children, wedding parties, and thousands of other innocent people, as the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen will attest.
But what the heck? If we get the violent drug gangs, won’t the deaths of all those innocent Mexican people be considered “worth it,” just like the deaths of innocent foreigners are considered “worth it” when U.S. forces kill a “terrorist” in the U.S. government’s perpetual “war on terrorism”?
Option 3. Capture the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, extradite him to the United States, and jail him for the rest of his life.
Uh, oh! Wait a minute! Did’t they already do that with El Chapo? Wasn’t that promoted as a gigantic victory in the war on drugs? Wasn’t that supposed to bring an end to the Sinaloa cartel?
How long are the American people and the Mexican people going to put up with this drug-war nonsense? How many more innocent people have to die before people reject, fully and completely, what amounts to one of the most evil, immoral, deadly, destructive, and racially bigoted government programs in history, the war on drugs.
Only one solution
As we have been saying here at The Future of Freedom Foundation for 30 years, there is one — and only one — way to get rid of drug cartels, drug gangs, and drug lords. That way is through drug legalization, complete drug legalization. Not just marijuana. All drugs, including cocaine, heroin, meth, and opioids.
With drug legalization, the drug cartels, drug gangs, and drug lords are out out business overnight. Gone. Isn’t that what drug-war proponents say they would like to see? Well, that’s the only way to see it.
That’s what happened, of course, when statists decided to re-legalize booze. They finally realized that they were never going to put the booze cartels, booze gangs, and booze lords out of business by cracking down on them ever more fiercely. They finally realized that the only way to achieve that goal was through legalization. And sure enough, the re-legalization of booze put them all out of business.
So why do the drug war statists continue to oppose drug legalization?
One reason is that they fear freedom. They are convinced that if drugs were legalized, everyone in society would suddenly become drug addicts.
Another reason is that there are lots of government officials on both sides of the border making big money off the drug war. That includes, of course, the bribes being paid to law-enforcement personnel and judges. It involves the corruption in asset-forfeiture actions by law-enforcement personnel. It also includes the generous incomes that are being made by people involved in the enforcement of drug laws, including lawyers, judges, court clerks, and law-enforcement personnel.
One thing is for sure: As long as the drug war statists prevail in maintaining drug laws in Mexican and American societies, there will continue to be drug-war massacres and other drug-war violence. Just get used to it.
