Trouble in Paradises

The last week of June saw grizzly news from the popular Mexican resort town of Acapulco, according to Reuters, severed heads found in garbage bags near the US border and in front of government offices, and the police chief gunned down, all believed to be related to the drug trade. Violence including ambushes and executions of police officers has become routine in Tijuana as well, the article reported. This week turf war violence has marred the part towns of Ibiza and Cancun. In Ibiza, various British News outlets are reporting, a British drug gang has long dominated the trade, but is now being challenged. On Monday, as a result, a "street in downtown San Antonio became the setting for a shoot-out between Liverpool and Newcastle gangs." In Cancun, Mexico, a federal official named Sam Rodriguez was assassinated, presumably because of his efforts to expose the activities of the region's drug cartels. Drug prohibition makes the world more dangerous for everybody, even partiers. Legalization would put these gangs out of business -- at a minimum it would put them out of the drug business, which would decimate their profits and turn them into much smaller organizations with less at stake to fight over.