FUELING CARTELS

The editorial "'Plan Mexico'?" (Page B8, Friday) applauds the efforts
of Texas Congressman Michael McCaul to paint yet another shade of
lipstick on the pig we named the War On Drugs. Isn't 50 years of
failed global drug war schemes enough?

McCaul will ask, what is the United States' role in Mexico's war
against the drug cartels? Don't bother. When we opted for prohibition
of currently illegal drugs, we created the cartels and the subsequent
violence.

When we cast our role as response by force, as in Plan Colombia, we
spread cocaine production back to Peru and Ecuador. Mexico now grows
its own opium poppies. The Mexican forces the U.S. helped pay to train
were hired away by the Zetas to be the killers we deplore. We have
spread narco-violence throughout dozens of other countries in our
hemisphere and to West Africa in previous attempts to save Mexico.

To what end? Our schools have been flooded with drugs for decades,
courtesy of over a million teenage drug dealers selling the excess
supply that the cartels need to protect their final profits. Alcohol
accounts for almost all addiction (about 83 percent) just as it did
when heroin and cocaine were legal. When alcohol use turns to abuse or
addiction (over 18 million cases), it is as bad or worse than any of
the illegal drugs.

If new efforts in futility "deserve thoughtful consideration," let's
consider if we really prefer to have inevitable drugs controlled by
cartels that make the drugs even more dangerous instead of by strictly
regulated pharmacists and doctors. Prohibition only finances our worst
enemies, and it has to stop if we are to focus on mental health care --
where Texas now ranks dead last - and the proven key to more effective
responses to drug abuse.

Jerry Epstein

President, Drug Policy Forum of Texas