The Drug Wars - In It for the Money

Mexico's top Interpol representative was arrested Sunday.

More than 4300 are dead so far this year in the Mexican drug war, more than the official US count of servicemen killed during the entire Iraq War. This is all happening right across our border. And for what? They're fighting over agricultural products that, because they are declared illegal here in the United States, are worth a whole helluva lot more than they would be if they were legal.

"There's no easy solution to it unless you put an end to the criminalization of drugs, and that's not going to happen," said Robert Pastor, a former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and now a professor of international relations at American University in Washington. He has been studying Latin America for more than four decades.

Sadly, Mr. Pastor speaks the truth when he says that putting an end to the criminalization of drugs isn't going to happen.

It won't happen because too many powerful interests are making too much money.