Today’s Wall Street Journal features a piece by Mary Anastasia O’Grady entitled “Mexico pays the price of prohibition.” In a time where the media continues to blame drugs as the problem it is refreshing to see an article that goes to the root of the problem in the headline.

O’Grady makes clear and concise points in regards to the 4,909 people that have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against organized crime started two years ago,

For perspective on how violent Mexico has become, consider that the total number of Americans killed in Iraq since March 2003 is 4,142.

The article continues on to link other aspects of Mexico’s war on drugs to the overall issues effecting our southern neighbor.

As this column has pointed out many times, one reason that security has so deteriorated in the past decade is the demand in the U.S. for illegal narcotics, and the U.S. government's crackdown on the Caribbean trafficking route. Mexican cartels have risen up to serve the U.S. market, and their earnings have made them rich and well-armed.

The column clearly recognizes the basic concepts of supply and demand when speaking on financial realities of how much cash is being pumped into Mexican cartels on the border, while falling short of saying the only way to fix this major problem is to legalize drugs.

O’Grady goes on to close the piece with a quote from former U.S. Foreign Service Officer Laurence Kerr.

America has been in Mexico's shoes: flush with the bounty of illegal liquor sales, organized crime thoroughly penetrated the U.S. justice system during Prohibition. As long as Americans willingly bury Mexican drug traffickers in greenbacks, progress in constraining the trade is likely to be limited." Regrettably, Mexico's institutional reform will also be limited and the death toll will keep climbing.