Doing Drugs A Victimless Crime? Tell that to the Mexicans

Time and time again, you hear the same old garbage from the pro-marijuana supporters and other miscellaneous liberals spouting that consumption of illicit narcotics is a victimless crime. I always laugh at that considering how many people are tortured or murdered in the process of getting those drugs to the end user. Kelly McPharland of the National Post wrote a good article about how drug cartels are taking over Mexico, threatening to collapse the country. Since 2007, more than 7,300 people have been murdered as the direct result of the drug war that is going on there. This is a higher death toll that than that of all Coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It has gotten to the point where police and the Mexican military are powerless against the drug cartels running amok across the country. In the northern states bordering the US, it the murder of police officers is almost a daily occurrence. Brazen criminals have hacked into police radio systems to announce their next targets, which they usually follow through on. The drug dealers are not even afraid of the 45,000 military troops hunting them down. Last month, the severed heads of several Mexican soldiers were discovered in Acapulco and an ex-general working on a drug enforcement squad was murdered near Cancun.

Oddly, what has been happening in Mexico has received next to no attention from the mainstream media in North America. Other than the Post, the only stories I've seen about it were on the BBC. I focused on Latin American history while in university so I have some idea of what goes on there However, most people are blissfully unaware of this crisis. It strikes me as alarming considering the close proximity of the United States to Mexico and how conflicts there usually tend to spill over the border. Reports have come out of cartels opening satellite operations within southern US states including California and at least as far east as Alabama. Don't think that Canada is immune to this either. In 2008, police in Halton, Toronto, and Hamilton made sweeping arrests of a violent Latino drug gang who was attempting to set up shop in the Greater Toronto Area. From what I've been told, these people make the Crips and Bloods look like naughty school boys. Mexico is also a popular vacation spot for Canadians. We've already seen several tourists die mysterious deaths in the region and it is well known that "rich" North Americans frequently call for sizable ransoms. Nobody has been immune to the violence, even children.

The question is what can we do. The reality is that much of this is our fault. North Americans seem to have an insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics, primarily cocaine which is what these cartels are trafficking. Stopping the problem is not as simple as legalizing it, as the Netherlands learned. While cigarettes and alcohol are legal and government regulated, that certainly hasn't stopped the multi-billion dollar smuggling of those items. It may seem trite to blame America. However, it's hard not to ignore that at the vary least we are contributing to the problem. This is why we need to step up the war on drugs within our own country by increasing sentences for drug possession and trafficking, as well as improving drug rehabilitation programs. The problem needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. What is now festering in Mexico is a powder keg which threatens to overtake all of North America. It was much easier to ignore Columbia when they went through the same issues but it's much more difficult to ignore what your neighbour does.