Mexican Drug War Essay

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The history of Mexican drug war can be traced back to the 1980s (Borderland Beat, 2010). As US had the regulation of criminalizing the possession of drugs since 1971 (The Drug Policy Alliance, 2014), this provided a chance for Mexican gangs to make money through transporting cocaine from Colombia to US. Currently, Mexican has participated 90% of cocaine transportation to US (Borderland Beat, 2010; Lee, 2014) and made about US$40 billion annually (Fantz, 2012). Although Ex-Mexican President Felipe Calderón had started the Operation Michoacan in 2006, which involved 6,500 troops to combat the problem (Borderland Beat, 2010), this cannot eradicate the problem but add fuel the problem, leading to murder, violence and corruption. The role of the …show more content…

Education can let people know the consequences of taking drugs and the drug war. People can be more resistant to drug after education. Cardoso, Gaviria and Zedillo (2009) pointed out that the education campaign can be designed for the youth, since they have the most user among various age groups and are probably most related to the drug-related violence. They suggest that the education programme should consist of two parts, which are talks given by former drug addicts and lessons on the responsibility towards drug war. Through the education programme, youth may aware the dangers of consuming drug and stay away with drug. This can lower demand of drug, which in turn lower the income of drug cartels (Ballesteros, 2012). They may even participate in combating drug-related crime to carry out their own responsibility. Ballesteros (2012) stated that these can be done in high school and university. As for the public education, the Mexico government can promote the concept of ‘drug-free’ country in various channels, including handing out book, advertisement in radio and television (Ballesteros, 2012). This can enhance the public awareness and let them know the seriousness of the issue. Therefore, education is needed to tackle the

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