How not to deal with narcotics

Frontera NorSur (El Paso) has a long article on the growing narcotics CONSUMPTION problem within Mexico.  I’ve never denied that consumption has increased, though I argue that the reason, ironically enough, is more border enforcement in the United States.  Exporters had to find a domestic market, and narcotics are dirt-cheap in Mexico.

Others notice that consumption took off after Mexico started following the U.S. lead in treating narcotics as a criminal, rather than a public health, problem:

Current Mexican anti-drug policy mirrors that of the United States.  Treatment programs are very limited, and control of illegal substances is viewed as a law enforcement issue. Increasingly, however, influential voices advocate other approaches. Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza recently suggested Mexico should debate decriminalizing certain drugs. A decriminalization law passed the Mexican Congress several years ago, but it was blocked by the Fox administration after Washington protested.

Writing in La Jornada, Jorge Carrillo Olea, a retired Mexican general and ex-governor of Morelos state, contended Mexico has lacked a long-term drug control strategy since at least 1992, opting to follow the path of Washington rather than pursuing “effective control over the production, trafficking and consumption of drugs.” During Carrillo’s governorship, drug cartels gained a big foothold in Morelos.

A recent socio-economic study of Ciudad Juarez, “The Social Reality of Ciudad Juarez,” could be an important contribution toward understanding and controlling the drug problem plaguing the border city and other parts of Mexico.

Published by the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez and partially funded by the Ford Foundation and the Chihuahua Business Sector Foundation, the study examined questions of economic growth, development, crime, and social services.

Although Ciudad Juarez has grown tremendously due to the expansion of the maquiladora export industry, the authors noted that many young people live in a state of anxiety in which there is no “certainty of the permanence of work, of the permanence of income.”

In such circumstances, the temptations of momentary, drug-induced bliss and easy money are everywhere.