ALMOST RIGHT ABOUT DRUGS

Re: "Mexico's Sounds of Silence - No news is bad news when media
self-censors," Thursday Editorials.
The Dallas Morning News almost got it right.

The ghastly violence in Mexico is not about drugs.

It's about money, and we can stop it. Drug cartels don't have a
valuable product.

The drugs they sell are common and plentiful.

All they have and all they are fighting for is an illegal distribution
system. There were no beheadings during most of the history of Mexico
and the U.S., when any man, woman or child could buy these products
easily, cheaply and legally.

No journalists are murdered today by the distributors of the most
popular Mexican drugs, beer and tequila. U.S. drug prohibition laws
allowed this untenable situation to develop.

Doing prohibition harder and harder and hoping for a different result
will not stop it. The violence will cease when U.S. laws allow
competition from well-regulated, legal sellers to put the cartels out
of business.

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas