THE DRUG WARS GO NORTH

The Canadian connection to Mexico's vicious drug wars is nothing to
snort at.

The death toll has long been seen as a Mexican problem: rival gangs
plunged into internecine conflict with little collateral damage except
to the country's reputation as a tourist paradise for Canadian
vacationers.

But the explosion of violence since President Felipe Calderon declared
a "war on drugs" after his 2006 inauguration has claimed nearly 11,000
lives - with 6,000 Mexicans killed last year alone. And the vicious
conflict respects no borders, with the cartels infiltrating 230
American cities - and now creeping northward to Canada.

As the Star's Linda Diebel has reported in an eight-part series that
concludes today, a deadly wave of gang murders in Vancouver can be
traced to the Mexican standoff. Police have tracked 30 shootings (with
12 fatalities) to the shakeout among Mexico's drug lords. But the real
victims are the addicts who buy their wares in Vancouver, Toronto and
other big cities in the U.S. - and descend into criminality to pay for
their expensive habits.

If Mexico's anti-drug gambit is to make any lasting headway, there
must be a recognition on the receiving end that the consumers of drugs
stoke demand. In the U.S., which is the world's biggest single
destination for illicit drugs, border czar Alan Bersin has only
recently acknowledged that Mexico cannot shoulder the blame alone.

"We bear a co-responsibility for issues ... drug trafficking and
illegal smuggling," he said earlier this year, stressing there is now
"recognition we share a joint problem."

Indeed, while drugs flow north, most of the cash and guns that fuel
the violence flow south from the U.S. into Mexico (just as most of the
guns used in Canadian shootings are smuggled in from America).

There are no easy answers to the Mexican miasma, but acknowledging our
shared responsibility for the problem will make it easier to grapple
with.