Walters the Warrior

From today's NYTimes, an article about the massive drug-related violence along the Mexican border:

During his visit to Mexico last week, Mr. Walters [our drug czar] heaped praise on Mr. Calderón for his “courageous leadership” in taking on the cartels. But he also expressed concern about the spillover effects of the drug war on the United States.

“Some of these groups not only engage in crime and violence in Mexico, but they come across, kidnap, murder, carry out assassinations,” he told reporters, noting that the intensity of the violence was still much higher south of the border than north of it.

“Our goal is to reduce the period of suffering as rapidly as possible by bringing these people to justice,” he said. “That’s what this is all about on both sides of the border.”

Mr. Walters, a vehement opponent of drug legalization, backed a proposal by Mr. Calderón not to prosecute people caught carrying relatively small amounts of illegal narcotics, including cocaine and heroin. Under Mr. Calderón’s plan, addicts would be treated differently from traffickers and would avoid jail if they agreed to undergo treatment, not unlike similar programs in some parts of the United States. “I don’t think that’s legalization,” Mr. Walters said.

What hypocrisy. If Walters was really concerned to "reduce the period of suffering" the answer would be simple: legalize pot, coke, and heroin. The Mexican black market, which is built upon demand for drugs in the U.S., would disappear and the violence along with it. Some of the millions we are wasting fighting a futile war on drugs could be directed toward treatment of addicts and education of the public about the dangers of drug abuse. That makes too much sense, apparently.