Who Is Profiting from Booming Cocaine Trade in the US?
Cocaine Demand in the United States Fuels the drug related Massacres in Mexico
Why isn’t the US government stemming the flow of cocaine to the United States, or making it legal like alcohol?
The mayor of a city in Durango state, a deputy police chief in Chihuahua and five local police officers are among the latest toll in drug related murders in Mexico.
More than 50 people have been killed in Mexico in the past few days, bringing the drug related death toll to more than 15,000 since 2006.
“Last year, according to the El Universal newspaper, was the deadliest in Mexico in the past decade, with 7,724 people killed in violent incidents attributed to organized crime groups.” LAHT said.
In the Ciudad Juarez, a region on the US -Mexico border, some 2,700 murders were recorded in 2009.
So far this year, drug-related violence has claimed at least 1,400 lives, local media reports say.
World annual cocaine consumption is estimated at 600 to 700 metric tons, with the United States responsible for more than 50% of the total. US remains the largest single market for cocaine (Europe 25% of the total, and the rest of the world less than 25%).
The body of “fugitive” U.S. marshal Vincent Bustamante was found in the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on March 25, 2009. AP photo. Image may be subject to copyright.
An estimated 200,000 people have left Ciudad Juarez [population: 1.5 million] since the middle of 2008 from fear of a turf war between the Mexican cartels, according to a number of reports.
“The government of Felipe Calderon is 3 years old and in Sinaloa, we have not seen decisive action against the narcos,” a Mexican politician said. “Nothing serious is being done.”
As Mexico’s drug cartels battle for control of the smuggling routes into the United States, the questions Americans should ask is:
Why isn’t the US government stemming the flow of cocaine to the United States, or making it legal like alcohol?
[NOTE: Fire-Earth does NOT condone the use of narcotics, but shares the belief that alcohol consumption is equally, if not more, dangerous than cocaine use.]
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