Mexican Drug War

While elected officials on both sides of the board dismiss legalization of the drug trade, Mexico continues to pay the price. Another 137 people were killed in prohibition-related violence there this week.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon caught serious flak this week from two different directions: Angry residents of Ciudad Juárez, tired of the killing and the soldiers, and the Mexican Catholic Church, which issued a report critical of human rights abuses in the military and crooked law enforcement.

Thirty people were killed Wednesday in Mexico's prohibition-related violence. That's not even close to the daily record.

In 1913, the El Paso city council became the first in the country to outlaw marijuana. Now, faced with the horrendous prohibition-related violence across the river in Ciudad Juarez, it has passed a resolution condemning current drug policies, but only after dropping language calling for marijuana regulation. It's got three years left until the century mark to get it completely right.

Heads not attached to bodies keep popping up in unexpected places in Mexico. Yet another gruesome reminder of the prohibition-related savagery wracking the country.

Nearly a thousand people were killed in Mexico's unrelenting plague of prohibition-related violence last month alone. At this rate, another 10,000 will die by year's end.

Los Tigres del Norte, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, and dozens of other narcocorrido performers better watch out. The Mexican government wants to throw them in jail over the contents of their songs.

Prohibition-related violence takes no breaks in Mexico. Another 162 people were killed in that country's drug wars in the past week.

It was a relatively quiet week in Mexico's drug wars this week. Only about 15 people a day were killed.

Last weekend saw the single deadliest 24-hour-period ever in Mexico's drug war, with 69 people killed. And that's just for starters.