Mexico, the Drug War, and “Victimless” Crime

A former Albuquerque sportscaster, Charlie Minn knows New Mexico, the southwest, and what happens around here.  He has made a new documentary film, “Murder Capital of the World,” about Ciudad Juarez.  In promoting his film, he is popping up on news shows in New Mexico and nationally.  Last night he was on Greta Susteren’s Fox News program (see video here, see transcript here).  I have not seen Minn’s film but this post is about the drug problem and the resulting carnage and the film is relevant.

Minn made some good points and some questionable ones during the interview.   His best points are facts;  the murder rate in Juarez is 4 to 8 persons per day!  The loss of life since President Calderon’s inaugural war on drugs has reached 50,000 in Mexico.  There is some spillover into the US but, by comparison, direct drug violence here is minimal but statistically significant, more about this later.  Minn’s questionable points were implications that President Calderon might actually be involved with one or more cartels, “… is President Calderon collaborating with the drug cartels or has he been putting on the greatest acting job for six years.”  In a questionable reference to Vincenté Fox, former President of Mexico, as having implicated US Government interaction with the Sinaloa cartel to stay out of certain areas in the US.  The truth is that Fox suggested that the DEA might be covertly offering cartel leaders reduced sentences for turning themselves into US authorities (see link).  He also singles out President Obama for criticism on the issue for inactivity but inactivity, except for advocating higher taxes, is that man’s specialty.  The criticism for lack of action on Mexico’s narco-violence is interesting but Minn does not suggest any solutions and Obama's administration is no more culpable than any other.  That does not mean that we should not be doing something but it is a tough problem.

Both claims were unsubstantiated and either puffery for his movie or an unguarded glimpse into someone truly paranoid.  The truth is, as he admitted, there is no evidence supporting either charge and the Vincenté Fox comments were taken out of context and blown out of proportion.  Sr. Fox’s other comments are germane, however, and relate to the problem.

The actual data for drug-related crime in the US is largely absent.  That does not mean that it does not exist but that no good statistics exist.  There are some good data on the prevalence of drug use in people arrested for any crime but the data on drug-related crime is pretty limited.  The best data appears to be ADAM (Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program).  The latest ADAM data that is available online appears to be from 2009 (see link).  That data says that between 40% and 50% of all arrestees in the Midwest and West test positive for Marijuana use and between 10% and 35% test positive for cocaine.  While that is not sufficient for true causative analysis, for example 65% have high school or GED education but no one is saying that high school graduation causes a life if crime, it does speak to drug use among offenders.  It is also the only data we have.

Now we get into the conjecture portion of this post.  There would be no drug cartel problem in Mexico if there was no drug use in the United States.  We in this country, encouraged by the entertainment industry’s depiction of drug use as a non-violent crime, are complicit in the 50,000 deaths in Mexico.  We need to understand that smoking a joint or doing cocaine directly affects the crime here, the violent crime here, and the murder rate in Mexico!  We need to stop looking at illegal drug use in the US as a victimless crime.  There are many victims here and in Mexico.  The drug culture in the US has spawned an organized crime industry that is quick to use violence, that poisons our society, and that may end up sinking the government of our neighbor if it has not done so already.

There are proposals to legalize marijuana, cocaine, and even heroin.  Since we already have an out-of-control alcohol problem (DUI), that argument can only be supported if we can show an improvement to our current situation.  The DEA advances the counter argument (see link) that so doing would not solve the problem of organized crime and drug violence.  While their argument is interesting, it can be argued that they have a vested interest in not legalizing drugs as the DEA’s budget could shrink in the process.

All I am certain about is that we need to stop treating drug use as victimless crime.