Mexico’s  violent drug war has been a major topic of discussion in news today. And there is no doubt the highlighting of the deteriorating situation will cause Lou Dobbs to throw a hissy fit about border security and dangerous Mexicans tonight. Thankfully, adults are in charge of the government now, and Hillary Clinton, in her new truth telling role as Secretary of State,  lays the blame squarely on our shoulders:

“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

“I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility,” she told reporters accompanying her to Mexico City a day after the administration of President Barack Obama said it would send more money, technology and manpower to secure the United States’ southwestern frontier and help Mexico battle the cartels.

She is absolutely right. 90% of the guns confiscated in the current battle between drug cartels and the Mexican government originated in the US. 90%. That is not a misprint. In Mexico, you can’t just walk into a gun store and buy an ammunition cache like you can here. In fact, you can’t buy a hand gun at all. Unfortunately, our gun control laws will never tightened enough to significantly improve that problem. This is underscored by the fact that since Barack Obama became President, backwoods nutjobs have been buying up virtually ALL the guns in gun stores.

So can we keep our guns and solve the problem? Of course, and it is simple. We could legalize drugs–so says Jeffrey Miron, Harvard Economist on cnn.com.  He is echoing comment made by former Presidents from Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia a couple months ago. They all argue this position, an idea that will hopefully soon become more mainstream in the coming months and years.

Legalizing drugs is no longer a moral or economic issue, it  has become vital to our national security.