mexican rx -- II

I am convinced there is no perfect solution to the drug problem. Whatever course Mexico and the United States take, there will be costs and benefits. The trick is to weigh the alternatives to determine if the current policy provides the most benefits with the least associated costs –- or whether some other option would be better.


Here are some additional facts everyone should be able to accept.

• People use drugs because they like the immediate results. That is one reason you do not see 8-year olds mainlining broccoli.
  
  
• Young people will continue to use drugs –- whether the drugs are legal or illegal. See fact #1.
  
  
• Drug usage results in huge personal and social costs. Methamphetamine users do not seek that hollow-cheek, sallow look. It just comes with the drug package.
  
  
• Drugs no longer merely pass through Mexico. Mexican youth are more than happy to adopt American drug habits –- and have.
  
  
• Any substance or object the government declares to be illegal will command high prices. Just ask Castro how much it costs to restrict free speech.
  
  
• Illegal substances that produce high profit margins will attract organized crime. Don Corleone’s wealth and power were not based on the Coney Island Coke concession (unless you take out the capitalizations).
  

The question is how much are we willing to pay for what benefit?


We could try the Cuba model (pictured above). What is going on right now in Mexico and the United States is a variant of that model. Cuba outlaws drugs. In Havana, there is almost literally a policeman on every corner. In every neighborhood, there is a monitor who knows everything that goes on and who is doing what. Cuba does not have much of a drug problem. Of course, it does not have much of anything else, either. And there is quite a difference in opinion between the Cuban leadership and the Cuban people about the attractiveness of the Cuban model.


Before anyone accuses me of committing the error of moral equivalency, I will point out that I am not saying that the current Mexican drug lord eradication is the moral equivalent of the Cuban model. Quite the opposite. Neither the United States nor Mexico have committed anywhere near the amount of resources to match the Cuban model. And morally, such a commitment would be wrong. I have been shocked to read that some Mexican citizens are so upset with the cartels that they would welcome a permanent army and police presence in their neighborhoods. The Cuban model offers high benefits for even higher costs. Mexicans and Americans are not going to pay that price.


There is, of course, the status quo. Some Americans want drugs. Drug cartels are willing to meet the market demand. The American and Mexican governments want to stop the flow of drugs. That angers the cartels –- and the fight ensues. Decapitated bodies. Fatherless families. Bullet-sprayed walls. They are bad enough. But the greater victim is a society that appears to be unraveling where the cartels have their greatest influence. And even if a cartel is broken up, it is just the cost of doing business. A new cartel will appear or another cartel will fill the vacuum.


That model relies on the unfortunate vocabulary of war. No one is really fighting a war against drugs. The war is against drug commerce. And how would we ever know when we have won that type of war? If it is a war, it has the same fuzzy objectives shared by too many modern military adventures. We may as well declare war against being overweight. (Of course, that idea is probably not as outlandish as I think it should be.)


Another option would be to pretend that the problem does not exist. In effect, that is what happened for generations in the United States. And there was more than just a little social and racial discrimination in that attitude. After all, the only drug users lived in public housing or were jazz musicians. Americans got upset only when middle class kids –- or, more accurately, children of middle-class voters –- started using drugs. By that point, organized crime had cornered the drug market and had learned the art of speaking to power with money. (Need I make the point that crime and corruption began first in the United States. Our taste for drugs has merely spread the symptoms.)


Leaders like President Calderón have chosen not to allow their countries to continue down the road to perdition. But, Mexico cannot act alone. It needs help to either fight the drug lords with military power –- or to be the beneficiary of a more radical approach: legalization of drugs in America.


And that will be tomorrow's topic.

mexican rx -- I

I mentioned yesterday that Billie and Nancy posted comments last week on the current drug war in Mexico. Billie’s piece was "What About the Drug Wars?"; Nancy’s was "México's War on Drugs." At first, I thought the dual posting on the same day was a coincidence until I started taking a look at news stories from last week.


Anyone who did not know better would think that all of Mexico is ablaze with automatic gunfire. As, I told Billie, my mother is convinced that when I move to Mexico, I will either be killed by a drug lord or I will be locked away in a jail cell. I am not quite certain what type of life style she thinks I will be pursuing. But the newspaper headlines continue to feed her paranoid fantasies.


Most paranoia has some factual basis. The Mexican drug wars are no exception. And those facts are simply alarming.

• In December 2006 Felipe Calderón was inaugurated as president of Mexico. He committed himself to cleaning up police corruption and ending drug-related violence in Mexico.
  


• President Calderón revamped the federal police force and called out the army to curtail the drug violence.
  


• Since then, 4,125 people have died as a result of drug violence.
  


• At least 170 local police officers have been killed.
  
  
• At least a score of municipal police commanders have been killed.
  


• Several major police commanders have been assassinated – many at the hands of corrupt police officers.

For those of us who live, or who will soon be living, in Mexico, these are not abstract figures. When I drive from the Manzanillo airport to Barra de Navidad, I pass at least one major army checkpoint. And it is every bit as spooky as the checkpoints I have encountered in Northern Ireland and during the last Greek-Turkey war.


There is no sense in being a Pollyanna about violence. Mexico has had an incredibly violent history. Some of that violence has been external -- Hernándo Cortés, Zachary Taylor, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte come to mind. But the Mexican people are not strangers to committing violence on one another.


A cynic might say that the current drug war falls into the second category – this is merely an internal squabble. But the assessment would be wrong. Most of the drugs controlled by the Mexican cartels are not staying in Mexico; they are on their way north to find their way into American noses, lungs, and veins. Mexicans are dieing to save Americans from their own bad habits.


Other than a few populist politicians, who find it convenient to blame anyone other their own constituents for anything, almost every discussion on the drug wars would agree with everything I have just written. But, for a topic where there is so much agreement, the solution appears to be elusive.


After all of the damage to Mexico during the past year and a half, the results appear to be mixed. The Mexican forces have seized record amounts of cocaine, marijuana and arms, the amount of drugs heading north has not been noticeably affected.


So, what is the solution? Stronger military enforcement? Legalization of drugs? Just ignore it?


We will review some of those options tomorrow.

my brother's keeper

"There is only one basic human right and that is the right to do as you damn well please, and with that right comes the only human duty: the duty to take the consequences."

P.J. O'Rourke

Last week Billie wrote a piece on "What About the Drug Wars?" responding to an article in The Houston Chronicle. Nancy posted "México's War on Drugs" that same day, but commenting on an article from The New York Times.


Billie suspected she would receive comments knowing that the topic was controversial. But there was no deluge -- at least, not from the tone of the posted comments.


Both posts got me thinking about this topic, though. Illegal drug commerce may be a topic as important, or more important, than immigration policy. I fear that Mexico may tear itself apart before the drug issue gets resolved.


For that reason it is an apt topic for this blog. I started to write a short piece. It has now grown to the point where it needs to be severely pruned. Even then, it will violate the Calypso word-restriction guideline (1000 words).


On Tuesday, I will start posting. I would appreciate your thoughts and your comments.

happy trails

A colleague retired on Friday. Calling him a colleague does not do justice to our relationship. He was on the committee that hired me. We have worked with each other since 1989. And it is fair to say that he has been a mentor, as well as a friend.


Transitioning from work to retirement seems to have its own rhythm. For my colleague it has been a series of retirement parties -- three associated with work. On Friday afternoon, we held a company-wide party, where I was the emcee. On Friday evening, we had a party with our division. On Saturday afternoon, the management team got together to say good-bye. It was almost like Chanukah in May.


For me, the rhythm means I am one step closer to my own retirement -- and life in Mexico.


For the Saturday party, I put together one of my favorite bread dips -- tzatziki. I developed the following very simple recipe based on one I received from a woman who ran a small restaurant in the Greek village where I lived.

1 cucumber, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 quart plain yogurt

Place the cucumber, garlic, and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped. Pour mixture into a strainer over a bowl. Place in refrigerator.

Place paper towels in a colander. Pour the yogurt into the colander wrapping the paper towels over the top. Place two plates as weights on top of the towel,. Put the colander over a bowl in the refrigerator.

After 1 or 2 hours, remove the bowls from the refrigerator. Mix the yogurt and the cucumber in a bowl. Serve with pita bread and kalamata olives.

I really like this recipe. But every time I make it, I am left with two bowls of liquids (yogurt water, and cucumber mixture fluid) filled with nutrients. Do any of you have any suggestions what I could do with either one or both? I have thought about adding them to a soup, but I would lose their distinct and subtle flavors.

The comment line is open.

where is that sponge?

Jennifer Rose, in conjunction with David Leffler, has started a relatively new blog entitled: Stuff Lawyers Like, She was kind enough to ask me to write a guest post. It went up today.

I was going to republish the piece here, but what sense does that make? This is the internet -- the very essence of the existential ideal where ideas can exist everywhere simultaneously. Or is that quantum mechanics? I forget.

But if you want to find my piece and three others try: Stuff Lawyers Like. Maybe you will, too.

a tree of hats

This photograph belongs to Andee Carlsson.

When I was going through Andee's blog last night and this morning, looking for a photograph that would be emblematic of her work, I chose the perico because the color, framing, and animation summed up Andee's work.


But that choice lacked one element. Andee loved photographing her friends and neighbors. The camera was a tool to share her world with the rest of us.


She posted a series of studies of a young boy playing with a bowling set. I have always liked the first photograph where the boy is sitting as straight as a pin -- almost being part of (and separate from) his game.


Because Andee was all about relationships. Here is a second picture.

where there never was a hat

This photograph belongs to Andee Carlsson -- and always will.

The date was December 19, 2007. I had just returned from a November-December scouting trip to La Manzanilla and Barra de Navidad to look at houses and to make a decision on whether I would retire in Mexico. By that day, I knew I was retiring in Mexico.


But I had travel journal entries that I wanted to use for some purpose. The travel journal existed because Andee of My Life in Chacala urged me to write down my experiences. And she was candid about the reason: she wanted to hear about places she had not yet visited in Mexico.


When I told her about the journal, she pushed me one step further: she convinced me to start a blog. It is hard to believe that it was only five months ago.


Andee and I had become on and off email correspondents. So, the next thing she did really touched me. She was the very first person to add a comment (what I now consider to be the heart of blogging). And then she made the following entry in her blog:

A new Blogger friend, Steve, just started his Blog. He is writing about his search for a place to retire in Mexico. I like how carefully he is looking around and checking out his options. Nice photos too. Steve in Mexico I put the Link on my Links list too.

It was one of the nicest Christmas presents I could receive. A veteran blogger welcomed me into the community. She immediately followed up with suggestions: Stop being cautious. Speak your mind. Tell us your dreams. All of it first class advice.


Most of you know the rest of the story. Andee died less than a month later -- a loss many of us still feel acutely.


I am telling this tale now for two reasons. The first is that Andee left a grand legacy in this community. The people who meet her genuinely try to assist one another. We are supportive. And we like each other. Andee commented on that aspect of blogging often. (And I will say it again. The decorum on these pages is almost the antithesis of many Mexico message boards.) We should do our best to welcome and encourage new members in the community.


The second reason is that there will be a time of memory in Spokane, Washington on Saturday, 14 June. I was planning on attending, but I am not certain if I could deal with the emotions that I can feel as I write this. One thing I do know is that Andee has become such a part of my daily life I doubt I could memorialize her any more than living out the principles she espoused on her blog.


One thing we will never forget is her memorable photography. The photograph at the top of this blog is from her collection.