The violence in Mexico and other countries involved in the drug trade is horrific. It has been for the past four decades.

The reason that this continues to be a problem is that, like you said, people aren’t going to ever stop consuming it. I’m not sure how many more 12 month cycles of arrest after arrest must go on before someone finally realizes that the full effort of prohibition simply can’t prohibit the substance.

If you hope for the violence to stop by way of people giving up their drug usage, then you’re going to be hoping indefinitely. You yourself admit this.

So, if you really do care about the people being killed in Mexico, what can be done?

There’s one sure way to dramatically reduce the violence; legalize the substance.

The reason these cartel members are active is because there are drugs to sell. The stores won’t sell it, so the cartels take up the business. Because of their illegal status, when they have a problem, though, they don’t call the police. They use their weapons.

If you really want to save as many of those people as quickly as possible, then perhaps you should consider advocating legalization. Over a decade of battling bootleggers solved nothing, but legalizing alcohol reduced the nation’s crime rate dramatically.

Today if you want something to drink, you go into 7-11 rather than to the guy down the street. That’s a guaranteed way to reduce violence, and it’s possible if enough people support it.

It doesn’t matter how many people support prohibition or how many resources are utilized, the violence gets worse and worse the harder the war is fought.

I just hope that more people will decide to look into the matter further. Do a little research, look into all of the aspects of the drug war.

The only hope for an end to this violence and waste of resources is for people to educate themselves.

Colin is a contributor unaffiliated with the SMU community. He can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].