From the LOS ANGELES TIMES Op-Ed:
The Mexican government’s reluctant release of updated homicide statistics reveals the grim costs of the failed drug war — and the growing need for an exit strategy.
As The Times notes, at least 50,000 people have been killed because of the drug war in the last five years — nearly as many casualties as the U.S. suffered in Vietnam. Many of these victims had no connection to the drug trade. ..
These murders are not drug-related, they are prohibition-related — committed by cartels that were spawned by drug prohibition, that derive their power from the inflated profits of prohibited but highly demanded commodities, and that operate in an underground economy in which violence is routinely employed to resolve disputes or remove business opponents. It’s similar to what occurred in the U.S. during alcohol prohibition, but on a far more horrific scale…
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