DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATIONS

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, has introduced legislation in
Congress to designate six Mexican drug trafficking organizations
"foreign terrorist organizations." There is no doubt that drug
trafficking organizations employ the same tactics as the organizations
on the State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. But
there is a critical distinction.

All of the terrorist organizations are rooted in religious,
ideological, ethnic or historical conflicts. Drug trafficking
organizations just want to make money. The people working in these
groups don't do it because of vision or self-identity. They sell drugs
because common, plentiful plants bring an exorbitant price on the
illegal market.

There is no easy solution to the centuries-old conflicts that have
given rise to modern terrorist organizations. Drug trafficking
organizations could be destroyed with the stroke of a pen. Take away
the illegality, take away the artificial price.

Suzanne Wills

suzwills@swbell.net

Dallas