Do Americans Share the Responsibility for the Missing Students in Mexico by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Protesting Students Missing

Forty three students in Mexico, scholars from rural Mexico, staged a protest against corruption in their county of Guerrero more than a month ago.  They have not been seen since. Their families and the country mourns as we should.  Even more, do we as Americans share part of the responsibility for their deaths. 

Students handed to Drug Cartels by the Police

The tragedy started in Iguala Mexico when students were on their way to protest at a meeting where the Mayor's wife was speaking. They were detained by the police and then turned over to the drug cartels and reportedly burned alive.  That's the rumor, their bodies have not been found. The Mexican Federal government sent the military to secure the town.  The police chief, the mayor and his wife, who has a brother who is a general in the drug cartel, have gone missing, reportedly on the run from the federal police / military.  The governor of Guerrero stepped down after he initially took no action. 

Widespread Student Protests and Mass Graves

Student protests across Mexico are demanding justice. We as Americans should be demanding justice as well and accepting our role in the crime. Like Honduras a few months ago, they should be looking North across the border.

Eleven mass graves have been found, containing 38 sets of human remains, but none of them contained the students. Eleven mass graves, are you kidding me.  That is a story in its own right.  A new mass grave in Cocula, a town 10 miles from where the students were taken into custody by the police is being tested to see if it is filled with the student bodies. About 22,000 people have disappeared since the government started cracking down on the drug cartels in 2006.

Police, Mayor and Drug Cartels - Partners in Crime

The mayor reportedly was paid several hundred thousand dollars each month to look the other way as the drug cartel made opium paste to feed the U.S. heroin market. They had turned to heroin as the pot market in the U.S. declined because of alternate suppliers (legalized states) and more effective policing of the borders and countryside for the relatively bulky, but less-lethal pot shipments. 

Our War on Drugs & Easy Access to Guns in U.S.

How could our War on Drugs (or A War on Black People Who Do Drugs) and our insane gun policies contribute to the students' deaths? Consider our drug and gun culture and imagine the ripple effects in Mexico:

1. First, it is no secret that the U.S. supplies the market for the drugs from Mexico and hence the billions of dollars to fund the militarization of the drug cartels. 
2. Second, you might be surprised that the easiest place for the Drug Cartel to buy weapons is from the U.S. Thank the NRA (Myth#27 Assault Weapons are Different From Machine Guns).
3. Our treatment of a disease (drug addiction is like alcoholism, duh.) as a crime perpetuates the cycle, it helps to create the market.  And those wanting out of the drug culture who are seeking help are reluctant to seek help for fear of being criminalized.  Seventeen states have passed Good Samaritan laws which allows and furnishes first responders with naloxone, a heroine antidote  And most states that have passed the Good Samaritan laws do not prosecute individuals who seek help during an overdose.  It is a small step toward treating addiction as a disease affecting real people who need help. Thirty six states don't furnish first responders with naloxone and instead they may arrest the person if he doesn't die -- and so the disease continues among the survivors.
4. Money is wasted waging a long ineffective war against people with a disease.  Incarcerating young adults, the biggest users,  instead of providing treatment centers and intensive life therapy continues the drug culture.  In prison they get "therapy" from those that not only do drugs but are real criminals doing heavy duty crimes. 
5. We are not being a responsible country by not working with other countries affected by our policies. We should even ask their opinion on what needs to be done and listen.*
6. By concentrating on "illegal drugs" and punishment we miss out on the real drug story in America. A study in 2013 said 4 out of 5 people were addicted to prescription pain killers before turning to heroin. They turn to street drugs including heroin  when they can no longer get their prescription or can no longer afford it.   There were about 17,000 deaths a year from drugs such as morphine and oxycodone in 2010 and in comparison only 3000 from heroin.                                                                                      So why isn't there A War on Doctors That Over Prescribe?  Or, a War on Our Medical System that Acts as if a Pill Can Fix Anything.  Perhaps if we had a culture that had a little compassion, prescription addicts could get help along with the street addicts.

Students Die From Our Inconsistent and Stupid Drug Policy

So, our students in Mexico are a victim not only of the corruption in their own country, but the ineffective and stupid policies in this country (the definition of stupid is to keep doing the same thing in the same situation and expecting a different result ... the drug war is essentially the same for 40 years ... really?).  Until we start addressing drug usage as a disease and listening to the stories behind the addiction, there is no hope for our young people with the disease or the victims in Mexico (and many other countries).  We are at the epicenter of the addiction crisis and the ripples effects millions here and aboard. Have we learned anything after 40 years? 

If we want to be good moral people, good world citizens, we will start seeing drug addicts as our children in need of help and understanding.   






*There was a High Profile Panel in 2011 which included former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and past Presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Columbia that recommended our government try new ways of legalizing and regulating drugs, especially pot, as a way to deny profits to drug cartels.  Former President of Columbia, President Cesar Gaviria, said "when you have 40 years of a policy that is not bringing results, you have to ask if its time to change it." (Not our government, something doesn't have to work to keep doing it.  Stupidity.) They recommended finding ways to end "the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but do no harm to others."