THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO DECREASE BORDER VIOLENCE: THE LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS

The murder of Robert Krentz in late March erupted like a political
volcano on the border landscape, spewing hot lava on the already
incendiary issue of illegal immigration--and generating plenty of hot
gas to go with it.

It must be affirmed that the death of Robert Krentz is a tragedy, no
matter who killed him. If we are to make any sense of this tragedy,
or retain any hope of preventing it from being repeated, we as a
nation must forgo the propaganda and fear-mongering that have
engulfed this crime, and have a frank, sober discussion based on a
clear understanding of the facts of the matter and the context in
which it occurred.

First and foremost, Krentz's murder had nothing whatsoever to do with
illegal immigration, notwithstanding a particularly idiotic headline
in the Arizona Daily Star that blared, "Illegal Immigrant Likely
Killed Arizona Rancher." People attempting to immigrate illegally to
the United States do not march 20 miles into the country carrying
guns, shoot U.S. citizens, and then turn around and march 20 miles
back to Mexico. The very notion is preposterous, yet that's what
opportunistic haters such as former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and
wannabe senator J.D. Hayworth would have us believe.

Shame on the Star for regurgitating such inflammatory nonsense, and
shame on Tancredo and his ilk for picking at the corpse purely for
their own political gain.

As facts emerged and replaced political fantasies, it became clear
that Krentz was very likely murdered by a drug-trafficker, a
different species altogether. If that is the case, it would make
Krentz one of an estimated 18,000 people who have been murdered by
Mexican drug syndicates over the past three years in an orgy of
violence exacerbated by Mexican President Felipe Calderon's
much-ballyhooed crackdown on the narcos. As with every other
crackdown in the history of drug prohibition, this one has produced
nothing more than a flood of violence and a reshuffling of the players.

Never, throughout decades of crackdowns and hundreds of billions of
tax dollars squandered on interdiction, has the quality, availability
or price of illegal drugs been affected in any significant way. Never.

That Krentz has joined a very large and depressing statistic does not
diminish the importance of his death or the terrible loss suffered by
his friends and family.

While it may be understandable that some call for vengeance and brute
force in response, such a response would be worse than futile.

There is simply no reason to believe that the interjection of the
armed forces into this situation will do anything but beget more violence.

It has not worked in Mexico--on the contrary, the armed forces there
have simply been bought off or become directly involved in the
violent drug trade--nor has it worked in Afghanistan or Iraq, where
our troops are continually placed in no-win situations as they are
asked to make war and keep the peace at the same time.

It is never a good idea for military personnel to carry out police
work. Simply put, military units are trained to kill or be killed in
the extralegal context of war, which makes them ill-suited for
interacting with civilians in a law-enforcement capacity.

But you needn't look to the horror stories of U.S. troops implicated
in torture and murder overseas to understand this. Look up the more
pertinent case of Ezequiel Hernandez, the 18-year-old Texas
sheepherder who was mistakenly gunned down by his own country's
soldiers as they conducted counter-narcotics operations on the border
some years ago.

Mexican drug cartels derive their power solely from the profits of
their trade, and somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of those profits
are generated by marijuana.

The best way--indeed, the only way, as history shows--to diminish the
immense profits that fuel the corruption and violence is to eliminate
their market share by legalizing the drugs.

You want to stop traffickers from carrying guns and weed across U.S.
ranches and shooting people who get in their way? Make it legal for
people to grow their own marijuana or get it legally from sources
here in the United States, and I guarantee you that the market for
blood-soaked Mexican dirt weed will dry up and blow away like April
wildflowers in the June sun--and the border will be well on its way
to becoming a much safer place.