Violence Increases in Mexico, Prohibition is Part of the Problem

The Washington Post and others reported today on the marked increase in violence along the Mexican border, part of a drug war that has reached terrifying proportions over the last few months. This violent swell has stimulated debate on U.S. drug policies abroad, yet little has been said here at home.

The Bush administration’s response took the form of a $400 million aid package focused on police and military involvement in the troubled regions. While the Mexican government surely appreciates this help, President Felipe Calderón and others have been asking for something more, something that gets right to the heart of the problem. They’re asking, quite simply, for Americans to stop buying the cartels’ products. Calderón believes that changes on our side of the border could fix the problems on his side – and he is right.

We only need to look back to the 1930s for a relevant example. In the early 30s, alcohol prohibition spurred the rise of violent cartels run by the likes of Al Capone that made vast sums of money selling booze on the criminal market. Congress' response was the 21st Amendment, which repealed the prohibition of alcohol and evaporated the cartels' profits overnight by establishing the legally regulated system we have today.

Could this model work again?

If we repealed marijuana prohibition, wouldn’t the drug cartels lose a major source of income? Wouldn’t we hurt their ability to wage this devastating war?

Opponents will say that, in this scenario, cartels will shift their focus to harder drugs, prostitution, or kidnapping, and the violence will stay the same. But this argument is like saying that taking a slice of pizza leaves you with a larger, more nefarious pizza. The fact is that Mexican drug cartels already engage in a broad array of spectacularly violent crime. Marijuana prohibition simply guarantees them easy access to large sums of U.S. currency.