> In reference to the cartoon of a Mexican drug czar that ran
on the Editorial Page March 3: As a Mexican American born in Texas and
raised in San Francisco, I was disappointed that the examiner would run a
depiction of a Mexican selling drugs out of an alleyway. The cartoon [by
John Branch] originally ran in a San Antonio newspaper, which does not
surprise me. That it was republished by this paper is shocking.
> To be fair, why not place the blame for the drugs coming from
south of the border on the policies of several U.S. administrations that
allow people of this nation to be corrupted by drugs. The American dream
is now a nightmare laced with drugs to replace poverty and joblessness.
for the marginalized fringes of our society, drugs are a way of making a
living.
> There is not much difference between corruption now and in
times past during prohibition against alcohol, when bootleggers became
organized crime syndicates.
> Until the nation and the U.S. government define a drug
enforcement policy that works to solve this country's appetite for drugs,
Mexico and other countries such as Thailand and Afghanistan will find it
difficult to keep honest government working to solve their own internal
problems. Until then, an unfortunate number of weak and underpaid
officials in foreign governments, and impoverished peasants, will resort
to becoming involved in the drug trade.
> One individual in the Mexican government does not constitute
the whole. Let's put the blame squarely where in belongs, on our
administration and people of the United States and Europe who have an
insatiable appetite for drugs not on the government of President
Ernesto Zedillo and the people of Mexico.
> Jose P. BransfordFlores
> San Francisco
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