Drugs, Killings. Who's to Blame?

Armando Ramirez, a Televisa reporter was slain in plain view after he left his place of work at one of Acapulco’s radio stations and some are calling Mexico the most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere for a journalist.

This is the latest in many killings of reporters and media people who have spoken openly about corruption, drugs, political figures and their connections with the drug traffic in that country.

However, this murder is just one of many out of hundreds and hundreds of people who have been sacrificed by the thugs running the infamous drug trade. Now, and because of the notoriety of the individual, many are calling for an investigation from the federal government and the public opinion is justly outraged. A recurring scenario in cases like this, which, in time, will be forgotten, and the name of the victim added to the many others who have disappeared or have been murdered.

From our perspective in the U.S. we see this as a distant problem and reinforces a preconceived notion that the solution to the drug problem lies elsewhere, this time in Mexico, when it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The drug problem must be solved in our country once and for all. We have the resources and the money to go after our own street gangs and other more sophisticated distributors who are spreading this poison everywhere. We have the intelligence and the technology to gather information on the routes the traffickers use to enter our country. Most important, the consumers of these infamous products are here, with ready and available money waiting for their next deal.

While it’s true that other less developed countries have their own drug addicts lined up and waiting for the goods, the U.S. is by far the largest costumer. All we have to do is look at maps of drugs trafficking. They all point to the North.

Unless we stop this trend in our own soil, it’s nearly impossible to expect others to do it. The enormous amount of money involved in the drug trade allows the thugs to buy almost anything in places like Mexico, Central and South America, including their own underground army of recruits, ready to kill anyone for a few dollars.

We should set the example by eradicating the use of drugs and going after the enablers, large and small, instead of asking from under funded governments a solution to the problem. Throwing money in other places can’t stop production and distribution of drugs. Colombia is a good example. Millions have been spent there with very little results, if any. We can’t buy our way out of the problem. We must face it at home where it resides by eliminating the access to drugs and prosecuting more traffickers.

We are witnesses of our own gang problems in our major cities, most of them engaged in the distribution and selling of drugs coming from Mexico and other sources and very little is being done in comparison to the crackdown needed.
Let’s think about it for a moment. If we, in the U.S., having more money, more resources and more and better enforcement of the law, can’t find a solution to the use and trafficking of drugs in our own country, how can we demand from others better results than our own, when those countries don’t have even near the same means to go after the problem? Let’s eradicate the consumption and internal distribution of drugs at home. It’s an obligation to our families, our children and ourselves. No Distribution=No Consumption=No Market=No Drugs.

Where do we start? Right in our own backyard! The same as the overly abundant Public Announcements regarding bad driving habits, we could use 24-hour reminders of an anonymous call-in line to denounce the countless punks dealing drugs in every corner of our nation. That’s just the beginning. If we increase the number of tips we will increase also the possibility of tracing the distributors and wholesale providers. Another important step should be to lessen or eliminate the sentences of the petty user and drastically increase the jail term for those heavily involved in the trade. I’m sure many in law enforcement have other and possibly better theories than mine. The question is: Why don’t we do something about it?