Phillip S. Smith, Writer Editor

Mexico and its wave of prohibition-related violence were front and center in Washington this week as the Obama administration unveiled its "comprehensive response and commitment" to US-Mexico borde

Gun control doesn't work to stop crime. Just look at places that have very strict gun regulation. Like ... Mexico.

When lawmakers in Washington managed to tear themselves away from the AIG bonus scandal, much of their attention this week was focused on Mexico.

President-elect Barack Obama met Monday with Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discuss bilateral issues of major importance for the two countries.

Immortalized by the hit HBO series "The Wire," Baltimore's Eastern District is one tough neighborhood in one of the country's toughest towns.

The U.S. is a major source country for guns:

TORONTO -- Canadian officials have told the United States they want to bring a Chicago gun dealer to Toronto to stand trial on charges of smuggling more than 200 handguns across the border.

The case, which may be a first for Canada, appears to signal a harder line against gun smugglers as Toronto grapples with a rash of gang-related shootings that have claimed several innocent bystanders.

Seventy per cent of the crime guns seized by Toronto police have been smuggled into the country from the United States. [National Post]

For 3 years, the U.S. has been attempting to extradite Canadian marijuana reformer Marc Emery for shipping pot seeds to America. Meanwhile, we’re supplying Canada’s violent criminals with all the firepower they could ever need.

American guns are driving the drug war in Mexico and beyond, while we prance about self-righteously issuing certifications to other countries based on their level of cooperation with our international drug strategy. American weapons kill more people than Colombian cocaine ever could, yet we pass judgment on small countries that fail to conquer the black market drug armies that are fed with our drug money and armed with our guns.

Still, the problem is not our gun laws. The problem is drug prohibition, which creates an infinite international market for high-powered weaponry. It is really quite absurd to think that we live in a country that manufactures enough guns to kill everyone on earth tomorrow, yet we jail our own citizens for growing marijuana for personal use and we try to extradite foreigners for being nice enough to send us decent pot seeds.

A troubling alert from the FBI:

The FBI is warning that one of Mexico´s most brutal drug cartels is attempting to violently regain control of drug trafficking routes in the United States and has been ordered to engage law enforcement officers to protect their operations, according to an intelligence report obtained by The Washington Times.

Los Zetas, the enforcer of Mexico´s infamous Gulf Cartel, is reinforcing its ranks and stockpiling weapons in safe houses in the U.S. in response to recent crackdowns in the U.S. and Mexico against drug traffickers, said the FBI San Antonio Field Office's Joint Assessment Bulletin. The bulletin was dated Oct. 17 and was sent to law enforcement officials in the Texas region. [Washington Times]

As difficult as it is to imagine Mexico-level drug trade violence within our borders, it’s a much more likely outcome than, say, winning the drug war. The harder we push, the more bloodshed and disorder awaits us. And just as intolerable levels of violence have invigorated the drug war debate in Mexico, there is no doubt that increased casualties here at home would draw yet more attention to the role of prohibition in funding and sustaining violent organized crime. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Three Greek police officers taking part in a raid on a hashish plantation were ambushed and shot by suspected growers armed with AK-47s Sunday night, leaving one officer in critical condition with

In the latest move in his ongoing war against Mexico's powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations -- the so-called cartels -- President Felipe Calderón last month sent some 6,000 Mexican

If the drug war supposedly reduces crime and violence, how come we keep reading things like this?

Citing a dramatic increase in the availability of high-powered, semiautomatic assault rifles -- like the one used Thursday to kill a Miami-Dade County police officer -- Miami Police Chief John Timoney has for the first time authorized patrol officers to start carrying similarly lethal weapons.

A burgeoning ''arms race'' between police and heavily armed drug gangs forced him to sign the new policy earlier this week, Timoney said. [Miami Herald]

It is just amazing that there are machine gun battles breaking out in major American cities, and drug policy reform is still considered a politically suicidal fringe position. Meanwhile, the prohibitionist peanut gallery continues to pronounce with pride the glorious progress we've made towards preventing people from partying.

Miami Police Chief John Timoney nails it:

''This is really a failure of leadership at the national level. We are absolutely going in the wrong direction here,'' Timoney said. 'The whole thing is a friggin' disgrace.''

I couldn’t have put it better myself, except he's not even talking about drug policy. He's referring to gun control, which wouldn't even be necessary if we stopped the endless brutally violent war we've decided to wage against each other on our own soil.

Central America's stability and development is being thwarted by crime and violence, much of it caused by the drug trade, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a

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