Collateral Consequences and Mexico

We sometimes have a tendency to point at the Colombia’s and Mexico’s as the causes of our drug problems in this country, but, as this article makes clear, the reciprocity is really pretty one-sided and not in our favor. We have to do things on our end to help when Mexico, for example, does step up to the plate.

But on Tuesday, Mr Medina said that key parts of the agreement were US commitments to clamp down on the trade in arms and the illegal chemicals used to process drugs, money-laundering and domestic consumption of drugs.

"For me, it is far more important that the United States is dedicated to confronting these four components of the drug-trafficking equation," he told the Mexican Congress.

He said that there were some 12,000 American gun stores located close to the 3,200km border with Mexico, which, along with the US' "permissive" gun-control laws, facilitated the flow of arms into Mexico.

Mr Medina added that about $10bn of laundered Mexican drug money ended up in US banks each year. He said his office was drafting a money-laundering bill that would regulate those responsible for transactions commonly associated with money-laundering.

Of course, if we would just exercise the self-government and self-control of mature, intelligent people, there’d be no drug problem for us to be talking about. . . . I know, I know. I’ll stop now.