“Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a literal war against the country’s drug cartels in December 2006, some 19,000 people have died. Mexican and American drug warriors are unfazed, saying the staggering death toll is a sign of their success. ‘Mexico lives with the violent consequences of an American dilemma,’ writes former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda. ‘It is because of American demand that Mexico is ‘forced’ to wage a war on drugs that otherwise it would not have to fight.’ It is not simply American demand for drugs that creates this situation; it is our government’s refusal to let legal businesses meet that demand. Just as it did during alcohol prohibition, that refusal creates a black market in which suppliers violently contend for territory instead of peacefully competing for customers.” (03/17/10)