Drug policy reformers, myself included, are always pointing out the similarities between Alcohol Prohibition of the 20’s and 30’s and the modern Drug Prohibition we’re still living under. Too often people pass off the comparison because we don’t experience the levels of violence from organized crime like the country did during Alcohol Prohibition. What they don’t realize is that all we’ve done is export the violence to countries like Columbia, Peru, and especially Mexico. Telegraph has a story up about the brutal drug war being fought in Mexico, and the deadly toll it is taking on Mexico’s citizens and businesses.

Mexico’s drug war death tally of more than 4,000 this year – 685 in Tijuana – makes it one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and the extreme violence has intensified since the federal government launched a crackdown against the cartels.

President Calderon vowed to take on the cartels when he was elected into office and dramatically increased the number of federal troops being used to fight the Drug War.  We then decided to send billions of dollars down to Mexico to continue fueling this violent war. Unfortunately it appears like Mexico is incapable of stopping the drug cartels, largely because of how well financed they are. The sale of illegal drugs like marijuana and cocaine in the United States gives the cartels multi-billion dollar budgets every year. Mexico does not have the money necessary to take on a criminal organization that well funded, and we’re not economically strong enough to even try to send more money down there.

We’ve got to get the profits from the sale of drugs out of the hands of criminals, much like we did when we repealed Alcohol Prohibition. This would also help the United States immensely. We’re letting billions of dollars flow down to Mexico, when it could be flowing into state and local governments instead. The economic crisis we’re in is forcing mayors and governors to cut police officers, firefighters, school teachers, doctors, and more. We need to recognize our drug policy for the past 35 years has failed, and we need to try something new instead of sacrificing these people’s jobs.

Mexico and the United States would both benefit from a taxed and regulated drug market, and to do that requires the US to take a new direction with our drug policy. It would put the profits from drug sales into the hands of businesses and governments, and out of the pockets of criminals. Our prohibition of drugs is destabiling Mexico and causing these drug cartels to be so powerful. If we want to stop this mindless violence, all we need to do is take a lesson from the history books.

Tags: alcohol prohibition, drug policy, drug war, mexican drug war, prohibition, regulated, taxed