TIME TO STEP UP TO MEXICO'S DRUG PROBLEM

They call it a War on Drugs. Reason is the collateral
damage.

Consider: Mexican drug cartels grow richer and more powerful because
Americans continue to want substances that the United States decrees are
illegal.

Consider: When the U.S. Congress added human-rights protections to
funding aimed at helping Mexico fight the cartels, senior Mexican
government official Juan Camilo Mourino called the changes "unacceptable
for our country."

The United States needs to work with Mexico to allay concerns so the
aid package known as the Merida Initiative can advance. The Merida
Initiative was proposed by the Bush administration to help Mexico deal
with the violence that escalated since Mexican President Felipe
Calderon began cracking down on the cartels. Since Calderon's effort
began, more than 4,200 people have been murdered in drug-related
violence. Police chiefs and other officials have become prime targets
of brutal killings in which bodies are mutilated. Killings jumped 47
percent this year, and public confidence in Calderon is slipping,
according to surveys in Mexico.

If the violent backlash from the cartels undermines public support for
this fight and forces Mexico's president into retreat, Mexico's
emerging democracy will be badly damaged. What's more, drug violence
will increasingly bleed into the United States.

Mexico is fighting our drug war, and it is in our interest that Mexico
win.

Calderon needs a face-saving way to accept both the aid and the
strings Congress wants to attach.

Mexico is historically suspicious of anything it might perceive as a
threat to its national sovereignty, but Calderon initially welcomed an
offer of help that includes training, equipment and technical support.
According to his own administration's assessment, the drug gangs are
better armed than the police.

Stipulations to protect human rights are not unwarranted. U.S.
taxpayers deserve safeguards on how their money is spent. One of the
requirements Congress imposed requires civilian investigations into
alleged abuses by the Mexican military.

Arguably, this might help root out some of the corruption endemic in
Mexico's public institutions. In fact, Mexican human-rights
organizations sent a letter to members of the U.S. Congress urging
them to preserve the protections and expand them to prohibit torture
by the Mexican military.

Nevertheless, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa says the
changes do not show "genuine cooperation and co-responsibility."
Mexico says it might not accept the aid under those conditions.

The strings on the money represent the right idea but the wrong
approach. Mexico needs to be persuaded, not coerced, to accept the
same kind of human-rights assurances Congress required of Colombia
before it received money to combat drug cartels.

As the measure moves forward, it is essential to make Mexico feel like
a real partner in the plans.

It is also important to bring reason back into this War on
Drugs.

The United States needs to accept its responsibility for creating the
market Mexico's drug cartels serve. It is probably time for the United
States to have a discussion again about the wisdom of drug
prohibitions that have strengthened organized crime, sent many
Americans to prison and done little to stop those who want to
"recreate" with illegal substances from doing so. Assessing our drug
prohibitions is a long-term project.

For right now, the United States needs to help its neighbor deal with
those drug lords who grow richer and more powerful selling product to
the United States.