AMLO Shows Some Spine

I completely agree that the USA has a f'd up stance on drugs and how to tackle the problem. Rather than treating addiction as a disease it takes the path that it too often takes and turns the problem into something that should be tackled with guns and killing. The USA has the majority of the responsibility in the drug problem and the problems that it causes around the world. I applaud AMLO's retort to politicians in the USA who seem to think that the answer is send military to a sovereign country to fix it. How many times does the USA have to invade a country and utterly fail at making it a better place before it realizes the folly of military adventurism in foreign countries? As a citizen of the USA I am ashamed of the way my country has been tackling the problem.

All that being said, I am utterly flabbergasted at AMLO saying that Mexico doesn't produce fentanyl or that it bears no responsibility in its usage. One can argue about whether the chemical elements itself are produced in the country or not but the fact is that Mexican cartels either produce the substance themselves or are freely able to import it into the country to make pills using a corrupt system. AMLO can play his word games to try and evade his responsibility as the leader of this country, which I am also a citizen of, to tackle the lawlessness and corruption that further enables the failed war on drugs. Instead he seems determined to hand more and more power to the military who seem either ineffective or complicit (for example the 43 desaparacidos de Ayotzinapa) with the very cartels who terrorize so many Mexican citizens. I wish he would have ended with his rebuke to the USA lawmakers but instead, as it seems to me he too often does, he equivocates and shirks responsibility for doing his job.

So let's imagine Mexico somehow totally stops allowing fentanyl into and out of the country. Please don't tell me you think that solves some problem in the USA. The substance abuse and overdose problems will continue uninterrupted, just as they've done for decades no matter how much of any substance was interdicted or who gets arrested. Capitalism will always find a way to supply where there is a demand.

It isn't lawlessness or corruption in Mexico enabling a failed war on drugs. It's the failed policy and laws. The problem isn't the substances or where they come from. If U.S. citizens can't get one thing they'll go for another. Again, you flew right past the problem in your haste to blame Mexico and its president for something that is not Mexico's problem.

Mexico's military is only being used to fight crime because Mexico's crime-fighting resources are overwhelmed because the USA continues to shirk its responsibility and because neither Mexico nor the USA will implement the only real solution to the problem and legalize stupidly banned popular recreational substances to remove the multi-BILLION-dollar a year black market from the control of violent organized criminals. There is no political will to take the only step that solves the problem. Take Mexico out of the equation and someone else will simply step in to fill the void such as China, Russia, Romania or North Korea. Maybe even Canada. The money is too big a temptation. And the problem remains.