August 9, 2011, Santa Fe, NM – Calling “U.S. Legalizes Marijuana” the potential headline Mexican drug cartels fear the most, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson maintains that growing violence along the U.S. – Mexico border is largely a “prohibition” problem, and that ending marijuana prohibition would “hit the cartels where it hurts.”
In a column published in the Washington Times, Johnson says that bigger fences, troops on the border and other enforcement measures are obviously not deterring border violence, but are actually escalating that violence. Legalizing marijuana in the United States, however, would deny Mexican cartels their “largest profit center and dramatically reduce not only the role of the United States in their business plans, but also the motivation for waging war along our southern border.”
In his column, Johnson said, “Make no mistake. There is a war going on along our border. An estimated 28,000 people have lost their lives to border violence over the past six years, and there is no end in sight. It is, without question, a more serious threat to U.S. interests than anything we are facing in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya.
“Having lived most of my life in New Mexico, done business there for decades and served two terms as governor, I will say with great confidence that just about everything we are doing to deal with ‘border issues’ is wrong.
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