Mexico drug prevention
LOS ANGELES, CA, April 10, 2009
/24-7PressRelease/ -- Not just our southwestern states but the world is alarmed at the escalating crisis on the US Mexican border. Mexican cartels are reported operating in 230 or more US cities, as far away as Boston and Anchorage, much less Atlanta and of course in our border cities.
President Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton have declared our administration's intention to help Mexico with money, manpower, and technology, putting $400 million alone into sophisticated electronic deterrence on the border.
But not just US citizens consume Mexican heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana. Drug abuse in Mexico is soaring as well. Unfortunately, Mexico's Social Development Minister Ernesto Cordero Arroyo reported in Rome recently that the economic downturn "makes it difficult to strengthen public finances of [our] states so they can combat organized crime, not just in Mexico, but in general." Mexico spent $6.4 billion in 2007 and 2008 fighting drugs and the US a great deal more. Mexico now has their army substituting for police in embattled Ciudad Juarez, the Kosovo on our southwest border.
What about the people really funding the crisis? Both Obama and Clinton have admitted that we must reduce drug demand inside the United States. Increasing US drug rehabilitation capacity and the effectiveness of our US programs is one factor. "But we should really beef up
drug prevention and education, and do it now, both here and in Mexico," says Clark Carr, President of Narconon International, a network of over 130 rehab and prevention centers in 50 countries.
"We must look longer term," says Carr. "Sometimes one must respond to force with force, to drugs with interdiction, but prevention is the long term winner and also cheaper." For example, he cites that the Amarillo Texas Prevention Impact Index recently reported that frequency of student marijuana use is down 11% and 79% of students say they harm themselves if they smoke pot. "That is present and future drug demand reduction," Carr says.
"Exactly so," says Marisela Espinal, a drug education specialist and executive of Narconon Mexico, a drug rehabilitation center based north of Mexico City. "That is why we are here now in Juarez. We are getting an estimate of what we ourselves can do to help these children and their teachers and parents." Espinal reports that Narconon Mexico and the international office in Los Angeles hope soon to start delivering substantive drug education in Juarez and elsewhere along the border. "Help the children. That's the way to go."
To download the popular Narconon drug education booklet for children, Ten Things Your Friends May Not Know About Drugs, visit
www.narconon.org. Also available in Spanish.
About Narconon International
Narconon international effective drug rehabilitation and drug prevention activities span over 120 centers in more than 40 countries. For more information, please contact us at (323) 962-2404.
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