BOYCOTT DRUGS AND LET MEXICO BLOODSHED CEASE

I stopped by a head shop in East Dallas one evening last week. I
wasn't in the market for drug paraphernalia but rather a philosophical
discussion.

Customers were few at the Puff n Stuff Smoke Shop on
Columbia Avenue, so I offered my question to a couple of clerks.

"Considering the violence in Mexico," I said, "wouldn't it make sense
for people here to boycott drugs?"

"Boycott drugs? That's stupid," one of the clerks blurted. "I don't
mean to offend
you, but that's really dumb. Drugs are awesome!" For the record, I
wasn't offended.

I know the idea of a drug boycott seems farfetched. "But there are
people in Mexico getting their heads cut off," I went on. "Doesn't
that take away a little bit from the enjoyment of lighting up?"

"No-o-o," said the other clerk, in that "duh" sort of way. At that
moment, the store manager came along and broke up the conversation.
"We're not doing this," he said, shushing his clerks.

"Can I talk to some customers about it?" I asked.

"Absolutely not," the manager replied, polite but firm.

I get it. It can't be good for the mellow vibe of a head shop for some dork in
Dockers to come along asking questions about drug-related torture,
mutilation, mass murder, decapitations and such. It might be bad for
business.

But then again, it should be bad for business. Dumb or not, I stand by
my question: In light of the gruesome torture and killings in Mexico,
shouldn't people here boycott drugs until the violence there abates?
You will notice that I'm not lecturing people to never use drugs.

I'm operating on the assumption that some always will. And I realize
it's ridiculous to expect some poor, wretched meth head to suddenly
put the pipe down out of humanitarian concern.

That's not going to happen. I also realize that people will cite the
violence as evidence that prohibition of drugs is a failed policy and
that drugs should be legalized, taxed and regulated. Let's save that
debate for another day and merely agree that legalization is not going
to happen anytime soon. And the need for action is immediate. Let's
do, however, accept the argument of the drug-legalization proponents
that not all drug users are pitiable, helpless addicts, but that many,
in fact, are fine, middle-class folks - your neighbors and co-workers,
perhaps - who use drugs in a purely recreational and responsible way.

I have known just enough people in that category to accept the truth
of it. And I think that's what keeps bringing me back to this idea of
a drug boycott. There are people of good conscience who might actually
be persuaded to stop buying drugs for a time. Surely "casual" drug use
must lose its appeal for some when blood runs in the streets of Mexico
and innocents die. I grieve for what's happening in Mexico right now.

From my travels there, I have really come to love the place and the
people.

And I wonder how these brazen drug gangs will ever be brought under
control. The only answer I can come up with is that we Americans, the
customers for those ruthless killers, have got to send them a message
that this can't go on. And cutting their profits is the only message
they understand. Journalists are often accused of sensationalizing the
news. In fact, we should be criticized for doing the opposite when it
comes to this war just across our southern border.

Nowadays it only makes the front page when a U.S. federal agent or a
missionary woman gets killed or spring break is imperiled. We ought to
publish the photos the next time a bag of heads gets dumped beside the
road in Sinaloa. Let's see the video when mutilated bodies dangle from
a bridge in Cuernavaca. If drugs seem awesome here, that's only
because we're not seeing their true price.