{"id":24592,"date":"2010-12-23T08:59:31","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T15:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=24592"},"modified":"2010-12-26T22:25:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T05:25:09","slug":"ideas-for-dealing-with-the-mexican-drug-cartels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/12\/ideas-for-dealing-with-the-mexican-drug-cartels\/","title":{"rendered":"Ideas for dealing with the Mexican drug cartels"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

To address the growing problem of Mexican drug cartels, the United States has to seriously consider two ideas policymakers in Washington don\u2019t want to touch.<\/p>\n

Neither is popular in Washington, and I\u2019m not endorsing either \u2013 but I am urging serious consideration of both.<\/p>\n

The United States must consider legalizing, regulating and taxing some drugs that are currently illegal. And it must consider offering military aid to Mexico\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

The second would definitely be more controversial in Mexico. So I\u2019ll start there.<\/p>\n

Military involvement<\/h3>\n

The War on Drugs, as several presidents before Barack Obama called it, has included controversial covert and open military campaigns that have produced, at best, mixed results and damaged the United States\u2019 image in Latin America.<\/p>\n

Imagine the Great Empire sending troops across the New Mexico and Texas borders into Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, live on cable news. Not the sort of images that are going to boost America\u2019s standing in the world.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, however, is this reality: Mexico isn\u2019t winning its war against the cartels. It\u2019s turning into a narco-state whose politicians are under the influence of drug bosses. And the Mexican military may be only evenly matched, at best, against the military might of the cartels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting that the United States consider invading Mexico. But our leaders need to have a serious discussion about whether to offer military aid to Mexican President Felipe Calder\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

I doubt Calder\u00f3n would have the political ability to accept American military intervention in his country even if he wanted it. That means the effort would have to be covert. But with the 24-hour news cycle and Wikileaks, it\u2019s nearly impossible to fight a war that\u2019s truly secret.<\/p>\n

American military intervention might be so unpopular in Mexico that it could destabilize the nation even further.<\/p>\n

This possibility has serious drawbacks. Which means I move on to consideration of legalizing drugs.<\/p>\n

Drug legalization<\/h3>\n

For starters, I\u2019m not advocating that the most serious drugs \u2013 most notably, methamphetamine \u2013 be legalized. I\u2019ve seen what meth does to people. Nothing that so quickly destroys people\u2019s lives and that can, in extreme circumstances, allow a person to continue to attack a cop even after being shot multiple times should be legal.<\/p>\n

But on the other end of the spectrum is marijuana, which is arguably less serious than alcohol. We need to talk about whether it\u2019s really worth the resources we expend trying to stop people from using this drug.<\/p>\n

I argued last week<\/a> that America\u2019s addiction to drugs fuels the war in Mexico and that we must somehow deal with the issue of supply and demand. While military engagement might have some effect on the supply of drugs from Mexico, the demand will remain. Perhaps that\u2019s why military interventions in the drug war have only produced mixed results in the past.<\/p>\n

The only ways to address the demand issue are by legalizing drugs or somehow combatting America\u2019s addiction.<\/p>\n

How are we going to combat the addiction in our gluttonous, dependent society? To stop the bloodshed and terror, legalization of at least some drugs has to be on the table as a serious discussion item.<\/p>\n

Gun laws<\/h3>\n

There are other steps the United States must take to combat the cartels. One problem is that, because it\u2019s so difficult to legally obtain guns in Mexico, the cartels get most of their weapons from the United States.<\/p>\n

The New York Times recently highlighted one loophole<\/a> in American law that allows this:<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress, enthralled with the gun lobby, has done nothing about a legal loophole increasingly at the heart of the carnage \u2014 the dealers\u2019 freedom to make multiple sales of AK-47s and other battlefield assault rifles without having to report to federal authorities, as the law requires for handgun sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo wonder one dealer felt free to sell 14 AK-47s to one trafficker in a single day.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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