WHEN IT COMES TO DRUGS -- U.S. SHOULD LOOK TO ITSELF

Re: "End legal sanctuary for drug kingpins" (Insight, July 17):

Robert J. Caldwell accurately depicts the frustration of U.S. prosecutors
and law-enforcement authorities who have been trying unsuccessfully to
extradite alleged narcotics traffickers from Mexico to face prosecution in
the United States.

Caldwell writes boldly about this serious problem from his safe office in
Mission Valley.

But I wonder if he would be so outspoken and critical of Mexican judges and
law-enforcement personnel if he were based in Tijuana, where the
international narcotics trade is in full bloom.

Every judge and police officer in Mexico knows what is likely to happen to
him or his family if he takes the hard-nosed position Caldwell advocates,
going against not only the drug traffickers but his own country's laws and
traditions. Caldwell fails to mention the enormous sacrifice in human lives
that has already been made in recent years by honest cops, soldiers,
journalists, judges and others who have attempted to stand up to the drug
traffickers in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

Instead of declaring Mexico uncooperative and attempting to decertify it as
a partner in America's drug war, Caldwell should be urging this nation to
clean up its own house. He fails to mention that it is our own use of
illegal drugs and the immense profits it generates for the drug cartels
south of the border that is the real source of the problem.

As long as there is a demand for illegal drugs, someone will be attempting
to supply that demand at whatever the cost. Trying to reshape Mexico in our
own image -- or demanding sacrifices of others that we ourselves are
unwilling to make in an attempt to solve the enormous illegal drug problem
we have created -- is not only arrogant, but hypocritical and just plain wrong.

Ronald W. Jensen, San Diego