Tuples and Attributes

I’ve just read the second opinion piece in a week about how we need to fix Mexico’s drug cartel problem. This latest screed suggests it would be perfectly ok for us to send in strike teams to take the cartels out. I have another idea:

How about we Americans stop using illegal drugs.

Thinking about the women and children killed last week in Mexico, my first reaction was not to blame Mexico; it was to blame an American society that has winked at drug use at parties; an American culture that makes using drugs a fixture in everything from movies to music.

Do people really think that we could send in troops to take out the drug lords and that all the violence would somehow disappear? The only thing that will stop the violence is to stop the flow of drugs and the only real way to do that is to dry up the market by either making them legal or stopping their use.

How would we Americans feel if Mexico sent strike teams into the U.S. to stop the illegal smuggling of weapons and bullets? Because, in case you don’t know, the guns and bullets used in Mexico are almost entirely U.S. made and smuggled over the border into Mexico.

Every time we condone drug use or turn a blind eye, we are the problem.

Every time we support a celebrity who normalizes drug use, we are the problem.

Every time we buy illegal marijuana because it’s cheaper than the legal stuff, we are the problem.

Stop the violence in Mexico? We have the solution and it’s not sending in troops.