U.S. Help with Mexican Drug War Insufficient’ (El Universal, Mexico)

Is the United States doing enough to put an end to the drug violence south of the border? According to this editorial from Mexico’s El Universal, while the Obama government has taken tiny steps in the right direction, opposition from the U.S. gun lobby and the legalization of marijuana in 15 U.S. states has hindered progress.

The editorial from El Universal says in part:

The weapons that kill thousands of people in Mexico every year come, in the great majority of cases, from the United States.

The dollars needed to buy these weapons come mainly from the millions of American drug users. Therefore, any attempt to destroy the drug cartels will be useless as long as so many dollars and weapons continue to flow freely across the northern frontier.

It’s a simple case of cause and effect, yet the U.S. has been unable to assimilate health and security policy into a single powerful whole.

They have begun to do the right thing, although not with sufficient force. The diagnosis is clear: in the last decade, four million adolescents a year were added to the ranks of drug users. The U.S. government’s answer has been to invest more than ever in prevention and the rehabilitation of addicts. The problem is that the plan is being carried out alongside a contradiction: while the United States and Mexico are struggling to reduce the entry of all types of drugs, 15 states in the American Union have legalized marijuana.

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