“A terrible tragedy happened today – an 8 year old boy was killed in a Mexico/US border town by Mexican drug cartel gangsters. Sadly, the truly tragic part of this story is that anyone who bothered to care could have seen it coming a mile away and done something to try and stop it from happening. You see, this boys murder was the result of our failed drug laws, our failed war on drugs. And anyone who hasn’t tried to put an end to drug prohibition has blood on their hands as far as I am concerned.
The boy’s name was Raul Xazziel Ramirez and he was visiting his Dad in Ciudad Juarez. Ciudad Juarez is a Mexican town directly across the border from El Paso Texas. Most people who live in these two communities feel that the they are essentially one community – one with an international border running through it.
Ciudad Juarez is an interesting town. It has 10 murders a day. It has had more than 2200 murders this year. It is being fought over by violent paramilitary trained drug cartels. The Mexican army has stormed the city to try and help but they have failed. In fact the citizens have protested the army feeling their presence has made things even worse. The town’s business leaders even asked the United Nations to send in peace keeping soldiers. And while this communities citizens get caught in the cross fire, drugs continue to flow across the US border daily. Sadly the cartels can afford to lose 90% of their shipments to the DEA and still make enormous profits.
So why are the cartels so interested in this place? Because it has lucrative drug smuggling routes that lead straight into the US. Routes that go straight into the largest consumer of illegal drugs on the planet – the home of Uncle Sam. At last count the US was consuming 300 metric tons of cocaine every year. That’s a lot of blow – and illustrates a lot of failed drug policy.
Sadly this 8 year old boy got caught up in the battle for those smuggling routes. The poor kid had to watch his Dad die from gunshot wounds before trying to run away himself – only to be shot in the back and killed. All of this tragedy happened because of our drug laws, our zero tolerance prohibition based policy. By giving control of narcotics distribution to criminals we guarantee violence. Unfortunately it is Mexico paying the harshest price for this misguided public policy not the US, the true source of drug prohibition.
If the US government was the one selling the drugs, as bad as that may sound to all you conservatives out there, this boy would not have died. There would not be gang wars over drug turf, because there would not be any money in the drug trade. No money from selling drugs = no violent drug trade, simple as that. Ciudad Juarez would not be a hell on Earth and Mexico as a whole would not be on the verge of collapse due to its drug cartels.
God bless you Raul Xazziel Ramirez – hopefully you haven’t died in vain. Hopefully your death will help change peoples minds towards the drug war, and ultimately help end drug prohibition.
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