Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jul 2015
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Ted Z. Manuel

'EL CHAPO' IS A CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES

With one major exception, everything Peter Bensinger said about kids 
being killed on our streets because of "El Chapo" Guzman is right. 
(Reader Feedback, July 16.) He omitted that El Chapo is our own 
creation, thanks to our laws that assure that the drug cartels flourish.

De-criminalizing drugs for proven addicts under a 
government-controlled program would end drugrelated street violence 
overnight by ending its enormous profits. Society would save billions 
now spent annually on interdiction, the courts, incarceration and 
even emergency room costs for shot-up drug peddlers vying for turf.

President Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs" can never be won as fought. 
Noble motive does not justify a failed, whack-a-mole strategy. If, as 
Bensinger said, "many thousands more are becoming addicted," then we 
aren't even fulfilling the original promise of preventing new addiction.

Our idealistic laws maintain artificially high underground drug 
prices, guaranteeing El Chapo enormously fat profits. He has "Made in 
the U.S.A." stamped all over him. It has corrupted Mexico.

When will our lawmakers courageously replace this failed strategy 
with one that ends this tragi-comic travesty?

Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom