Surge Desk

Mexico: America's Drug Habit Is Killing Us

Updated: 1 day 2 hours ago
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Paul Wachter

Paul Wachter Contributor

AOL News Surge Desk
(Oct. 28) -- The demand for drugs knows no borders.

At the root of Mexico's increasing troubles with narco-terrorism is American consumption, Mexican President Felipe Calderon told the BBC in an interview that aired Wednesday.

"They [the Americans] have a clear responsibility in this because they are providing the market for the drug dealers and the criminals," he said. "They need to do a lot more in terms of reducing the consumption of drugs and to stop the flow of weapons towards Mexico."

Since Calderon took office in 2006, more than 28,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence.

Calderon also condemned Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in California. Colombian President Manuel Santos agreed, saying, "It is confusing for our people to see that while we have lost lives and we invest vast resources in the drug war, in the consumer countries they promote proposals like the Californian referendum to legalize the production, the sale and the consumption of marijuana."

But former Mexican President Vicente Fox disagrees and has called on Mexico to legalize marijuana to reduce crime. "Consider the U.S. experience [that] when alcohol was banned, then began the crime, the black market, the same problems we have today with [marijuana]," he said.

Read more at the
BBC.

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