Ten children, youths and young adults between the ages of 8 and 21 were gunned down, presumably by drug traffickers, in the northern Mexican state of Durango, the state's attorney general said Monday.
The incident happened Sunday on a road near the town of Pueblo Nuevo in southern Durango.
Attorney General Daniel Garcia Leal said that unknown gunmen who had set up a fake checkpoint on the road shot and even threw grenades at the victims, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.
The victims were in a pickup truck, returning to their homes after having traveled to pick up money to support their school as part of a government social program, Garcia Leal said. The gunmen motioned the truck to stop but the victims, out of fear of being robbed or assaulted, did not comply, the attorney general said.
No arrests had been made in the incident, which is the latest in which children have found themselves caught in the middle of the country's violent drug wars. In January, in a case of mistaken identity, 15 people, mostly teenagers, were killed when gunmen attacked a house party in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
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It's pretty simple, in my opinion. We take a Libertarian point of view and legalize everything because laws should simply protect people and their property from other people. More people die from smoking cigarettes then from smoking marijuana. All we can do is educate, and in the end let adults make their own choices. If someone destroys their life because they decide they want to smoke something cooked in their bath tub, well, it's their life to destroy. It doesn't matter what you do, you cannot save someone from themselves. I'm all for a survival of the fittest mentality. Let the weak weed themselves out. Regulate drugs through taxation, but that should be the extent of government involvement. Federal laws will not, and cannot, replace parenting.
Do I think drugs are a problem, they absolutely can be, and the hard core ones always will be in regards to our bodies. But, as we learned from prohibition, making something illegal doesn't make it go away, it just brings in the black market aspect, the lack of standards, and the violence that comes with it. If I wanted to smoke crack, I could go out and find crack, and laws won't stop that. The competition for the sale, however, isn't solved by lowering prices in the market place and clever marketing, it's solved by military grade weaponry.
Simple economics teach us that the only way to reduce supply is by reducing demand, and laws aren't reducing the demand, we need to educate, and that education starts in the home. Without demand, there is no profitability, and therefore no supply. At the heart of drug trafficking is a business model, take out the profitability and you take out the business.
Obviously the drug cartels are hiring psychopaths who actually enjoy this.
I may be wrong, but i bet that most of the money that makes its way back to the cartels is not from selling weed. It is more likely from heavy narcotics like cocaine, crack, heroin and some prescription pain killers. Legalizing these narcotics is not the answer.
I am not proposing a solution here, but there has got to be something that the Mexican gov't in conjunction with the gov'ts of bordering countries can do. This is a very very serious problem that requires outside help before there is an all out bloody war.
No, the terrible drug problem is caused by the incessant American use of drugs. People who use drugs, initially as a form of recreation, are the problem. We need to be responsible for our activity. Those who use drugs, whether it is methamphetamine, cocaine or marijuana, are directly responsible for the murder and mayhem in Mexico and around the drug producing regions of the world. No customers=no market. We destroy the rain forest to get cocaine. We poison our national parks to grow marijuana. Time to pull up our big people's pants, and knock off the drug use. Treat those who are addicted, and stop acting as if this is a victimless crime.
The American states closest to Mexico should cease selling guns and ammunition immediately.
It's too easy to purchase guns on the American side and the Mexicans have asked and begged for gun sales to stop.
As long as there is a market for the product – whether its drugs or guns – there will be trafficking.
So the Americans should kick the habit – get healthy and stop ruining their lives and the lives of these innocent children who have died without reason.
It's a truly depressing problem without a solution at this time.
These "people" who are killing innocent children are terrorist, and no better than Al Queda. They behead people and leave their severed heads all over the streets of Mexico! You expect the legalization of marijuana to magically fix everything? Well I'm glad that crisis is solved! Are you kidding me?
Unfortunately, the US is Mexico's best customer. We have to do something about our drug problem here. Meth, Crack, Heroin, etc. is EVERYWHERE! As I'm writing this, the news is reporting on Heroin in the suburbs. These Drug Lords are specifically marketing to teenagers by using whatever appeals to them. They're actually stamping the outside of heroin packages with "TWIILIGHT" (the movie), It is sickening!
This isn't going away anytime soon, our only hope is Drug Treatment and Education for the addict AND their loved ones. Families need to get schooled on how to deal with these issues. We can't bury our heads in the sand and pretend it can't happen to your family, because it can!
Our government needs to quit slashing funding for drug treatment and get into the solution!
My heartfelt condolences to the families in Mexico and in the US who have lost loved ones to this disease.
Legalizing is not going to work. Addicts don't work. What are some of u thinking?? Just send people to rehab.....not going to fly. The drug lords in Mexico are working with gangs in the States. All "these" people know is to be bad and do horrible things. They will never stop. It's in their blood now. Next, and I'm sure this is already happening, is human trafficking. This violence goes deep to the core of their very livelihood. What type of business they would only go into one can only imagine if we try to legalize.
I have lived in Mexico, and left because I could see that drugs were becoming a problem,
In 1990 no one was allowed to have a gun in Mexico. Now they do.
Nearly everyone in authority is corrupt; and if not corrupt, are being offered money or a
coffin.
It was said some years ago that the drug lords had more money than most
governments. I have been saying for over forty years that drugs should be legalized,
taxed, and the money spent on treatment. Prohibition of alcahol didn't work either. Anyone heard of Al Capone?
Having worked in various capacities with the law, how can anyone continue to support the current drug laws? If you support them you support the drug cartels, it really is that simple because the 'war' was lost decades ago. 90% of the money spent on drugs goes to the cartels. They flourish because there is a market for their product. No other reason. Take away the market, and they will no longer be in business. That's EXACTLY what happened with prohibition.
Every year there are many killed by drugs and alcohol. However, alcohol kills 5 times the numbers of the heroin, meth, coke etc. COMBINED. Drug enforcement is big business, that is one thing standing in the way. Addiction of any kind is a medical issue – start treating it as such. Did you know that treatment costs 10% compared to enforcement and incarceration?
How many will die until we get our heads out of the sand?
Let's faced we got the problem,guys... the Drug Addicts and the Narco Cartel,Is all here and Mexican authorities are doing what they being told "attacking the problem",Why not before with PRI?...Corruption was even worse before years with PRI. And now we just need to get united and cooperate all along,Stop blaming "each others problems".Look up Europe or Scandinavia they all united,they have much better solutions on use of drugs...Society's are more free and relax. We dont want our Future young children get kill by use of drugs or getting kill in the midlle of a bigger Matter...Let's live a Brighter Future!!
All this kiillings are taking place because of the HUGE demand for durgs we have in our country. It is ovious that what we are doing in PREVETING drug consumbtion in our kids , is not working. We are still using the same method of drug prevention that we did in the mid 60's. Tine has change and PARENTS need to open up their eyes wider and look for other alternatives.
when all the smoke clears and the blood is dried by the sun, those plants that caused all this greif will still grow somewhere.its so stupid
How about instead of legalizing drugs people just stop buying them? What a joke it is for those who push for legalization to say it will end all this violence.It's not a necessity to use pot,cocaine or heroin but your willing to put another humans life at risk just so you can have the selfish luxury of getting high.Why doesn't anyone say "my desire to use drugs is causing violence and murder maybe I should just stop?"
JC, Isn't that just a bit unreasonable. That is like expecting Polosi, Reid and or Obama to do something smart. It aint gona happen.
Paula, you have it all wrong. See, That was before Obama becama president of the Mexico. there is no border now between Mexico and america. Now Mexico's Northern border is with Canada. There were not enough democrates in america so Obama did away with it. It is now the United States of Mexico.