In response to the question posed by the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle editorial regarding Mexican drug cartel violence, I offer three adages:

* “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

It’s not the “victimless drugs” that are at the heart of these massacres. It’s the massive income they provide the cartels — thanks solely to their illegality.

* “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That would apparently include all the governments of all the countries in the world, including the ones who have learned that fear is a powerful tool with which to control its citizens. Have we forgotten Prohibition and the rise of gangsters with tommyguns rubbing out fellow mobsters over the control of the profits garnered from the sale of illegal hooch?

* “One definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

How long are we going to cling to the absurd notion that we can stop people from using drugs by forbidding their use?

It’s never worked — anywhere — ever.

People smoke more and drink more — and more people smoke and drink — when times are tough. The same is true for anything that offers even momentary release from pain.

There aren’t enough police and guns and jails in the world to contain all of those who want surcease from the pain of their broken societies, their lost ethics, their lack of opportunity to fulfill even their most basic needs.

We can’t cure a disease by treating its symptoms.

Curing the disease takes patience and real courage but, in the end, is the only effort that is truly worth making.

Jeff Joseph

Los Angeles

originally from Waterville

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