DRUG USE HERE FUELS TROUBLES

Re "Narco sub called the 'real deal' by DEA" (Page A6, Feb. 8):
Consider these headlines coming out of Mexico: "Police chief
beheaded"; "Town police department quits"; "Two U.S. students killed
just across the border"; "Slain missionary was fleeing drug cartel
threats"; "Hundreds of families have fled this Pueblo Magico amid
reported death threats from drug cartel thugs"; "More than 22,000
people have died in drug-related violence since Mexican President
Felipe Calderon declared war on the nation's narcotrafficking cartels
in December 2006."

Some time ago, people were trying to get the U.S. public to use less
foreign oil because some of the money was going to terrorists who
wanted to harm this country.

Mavbe we ought to think about the buying and using of drugs the same
way. The money that addicts spend, even those who consider themselves
only as "recreational" drug users, goes to fund the drug cartels and
the results have been deadly.

U.S. drug users should think of the money they spend on illegal drugs
as blood money. The public should also think of it as blood money,
and the bloodshed is getting too close to home.

Don Perera, Rocklin