Drugged and Ignorant

I have stopped paying attention to most people who think they know what they are talking about when it comes to the situation in Mexico and Latin America regarding the drug threat.  In almost all the public pronouncements of know-it-alls from presidential candidates to the lowliest of citizens, they seemingly all profess to know how to best handle the border against drug smuggling.  Fences.  Lampposts.  Sensors.  Armed guards.  Pilotless drones.  Moats.  Walls.

Morons.  Few ever consider that the fault lies on this side of the border.

Like the argument regarding immigration – if there were no jobs, they would not come – so, too:  If Americans did not consume drugs they would not see a drug-thugged Mexico.  An ill-informed populace can only display their ignorance to the world until Americans control their appetite for drugs.

A recent CNN special program on the narco-wars was the usual, useless reporting on the subject.  We have seen already the reports time and again of the murders, collusion, corruption and horror of the drug trade.  I waited patiently for nuance, information or something indicative of some new thought or insight.  What we have not seen reported on as repeatedly are the undercover sales of drugs in the nightclubs and bars of America, for example, that serve as principal retail distribution points of the drug trade.  The image of the drug problem is a Mexican drug smuggler not the American consumer.

If we could arm a satellite with the sophisticated equipment that border enthusiasts want to deploy so generously along the Rio Grande to record the drug transactions that occur on any given Friday and Saturday night from Bangor, Maine, to Chula Vista, California, then perhaps we might understand the true nature of the problem.

Blaming Mexico for our drug consumption is embedded in the human propensity to blame others for a problem, and too many Americans fall back on the stereotypical nonsense that stunts any rational discussion on the border.  And most reporters report on what they know; the CNN program was no exception.  How much better informed would we be if the message left with the viewer was that every one of the bullets that gunned down the estimated 50,000 individuals who have lost their lives in Mexico’s war on drugs has been purchased during the transactions that occur in the dark recesses of the night in American cities.

Little does the American public know that the buyers of that clandestine package or bag in addition to being accomplices to murder are silently undermining a country whose stability is essential to the United States.  Drugs are a bad business all the way around.

There are not enough camera crews in the United States to cover every bar, club, dance hall or dormitory room to capture the true and vile essence of the problem.  But enough of the repetitive, sanctimonious, simplistic reporting.

It is dumb, and it is boring.

Feel free to forward these blogs that deal with business topics on Mondays, politics on Wednesdays and social and personal and professional development on Fridays.  Additional thoughts are published invariably on Tuesdays or Thursdays.