Mexico's deadly war on drugs.

[R_P_A_S]

I had some relatives visit from Mexico. they are really into their politics. I can remember ever since I was a little kid how they were so into their party PAN, the conservative, Christian right leaning party that has been in power in Mexico for the last 11 years.

They were telling me how Mexican President Felipe Calderon is doing a fine job in office. he has a 70% approval rating. and most of these approval has do to with his "war on drugs" in the last 14 months and average of 5 people have died everyday from this Drug Wars. either drug cartel members or members of the police or military.

I mean it seems pretty bad. some of the port cities have advisories from other countries embassies, NOT to travel due to the ongoing wars between police and drug cartels. More and more politicians have been shot and killed while driving in their car or in some sort of gang like retaliation.

All i really notice is an increase in violence and deaths. I mean do this kind of methods solve the drug problem? what do you guys think? How come the majority of the population in Mexico believes their president is using the right methods "to fight the drug wars"????

[Iron]

Its not that they think its the right method, they are just gald someone is attempting to do something about it. insted of having a goverment that was under the control of the cartel and did not try to combat the problem. but this is just speculation.

[GiveITall]

The "War on Drugs" is a popular slogan used by many governments. However this approach, underlined by a philosophy of zero tolerance, is never going to work because it does not acknowledge that drug use is an inherent part of society. The best way to minimize all harms associated with illicit drug use, including violent death and murders, is to legalise (or at least partially leagalise) all drugs.

[Outmoded]

I agree with G, this 'War on Drugs' is simply pruning the metaphorical tree. They should really be asking themselves: 'Why are these people manufacturing these drugs? Why do they sell them?'

The underlying reason of this is simple - money. Drugs are big business, a decent opium crop can net a farmer a year's profit in one season. Hell, most of the time, farmers who grow drug crops only do it because they can't sell their traditional produce. The governments of the world can either expend vast sums of money and place untold thousands of innocent people in the crossfire, or they can bite the bullet and incorporate drug manufacture into a state-run, or even national enterprise. By regulating, taxing and, hell, maybe even franchising drug manufacture, you needn't take the only viable source of income from farmers in the 2nd and 3rd world, but give them stability and a job for life at the cost of a marginal cut in profit.

Admittedly, this a rather dumbed-down version of the overall concept, but the fundamentals are sound enough, no?

[Tatarin]

As far as I can see, anything that has become restricted or banned, has always gained more "customers".

Really, how can one stop drug use completely? The only way would be to end the use of cash money, mass surveillance over just about every inch of the country in question, and to register all criminals and chip them. The possession of any illegal drugs must be met with harsh punishment - something like life in prison, or death.

Then, maybe then, people will stop. But I also think that people have to be more educated on drugs, and by that I mean that people learn the facts. And what do states do to "combat" this problem? They lie about the effects of various drugs instead - any factual research is disregarded as being full of flaws, or biased, and does not factor into the mainstream sciences.

In irony, the state doesn't change - history is changed to back up what the state says.

I mean, you can't stop the drug business. There will always be people who have lost everything, and the only way to survive is to get involved with the drug trade.