Pubdate: Mon, 19 Nov 2007
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Cited:  National Drug Intelligence Center http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico

REMEMBER THE WAR ON DRUGS?

It is good to see Mexico and the United States working together to 
battle the drug cartels that deliver hundreds of tons of illegal 
drugs to American consumers every year, killing more than 2,000 
Mexicans annually along the way. Still, the Bush administration's 
proposed $1.4 billion counternarcotics aid package falls far short of 
what is needed to confront the problem.

If Washington is serious about stopping the northward flow of 
cocaine, heroin and other drugs, it must begin an aggressive campaign 
to stop the southward flow of money and high-powered weapons that 
finance and arm the cartels. And there must be a far more serious 
effort to curb Americans' use of illicit drugs.

Federal financing for drug prevention and treatment programs has been 
steadily declining since 2005. Yet so long as there is demand, the 
narcotics will always find a route, through Mexico or some other way.

There is not a lot of talk these days about the war on drugs, but the 
traffickers are more than holding their own. The National Drug 
Intelligence Center estimates that Andean cocaine arriving in Mexico 
for transshipment north jumped from 220 tons in 2000 to 380 tons in 
2006. Mexican heroin production for the United States market went 
from 9 to 19 tons in the same time. In Mexico, defeat is measured in 
bodies: more than 2,000 last year and 1,100 in the first six months 
of 2007, including drug dealers, police officers, journalists and bystanders.

For the first time, Mexico is seriously turning to the United States 
for help, and Washington is eager to respond. Even then, the proposed 
aid package -- starting with $500 million to help train and equip 
Mexican law enforcement tucked into the White House's request for the 
Iraq war -- looks shockingly inadequate when compared with what the 
drug dealers have at their command.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, between $8 
billion and $23 billion in proceeds from the drug trade flowed 
illegally across the border into Mexico in 2005. The cartels have 
used that enormous financial clout to corrupt Mexican law enforcement 
on an unparalleled scale. The traffickers' firepower -- likened to 
what American soldiers face in Afghanistan and Iraq -- also eclipses 
the puny arsenal of Mexico's police forces. Mexican officials 
estimate that 90 percent of the guns they confiscate are smuggled in 
from the United States.

The good news is that Mexico and the United States finally recognize 
that they are on the same side in this battle. It is a vast 
improvement over Washington's perennial finger-wagging. Mexico's 
resolve to take on drug trafficking, rather than dismissing it as an 
unsolvable problem, is also welcome. But it is only a start. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake