Why can't our legislators legalize all drugs and put their operation under the control of private companies that can be taxed, supervised and regulated? This urgent and sensible action would particularly our citizens living close to the Mexican border, in states that could easily end up like Mexico itself-lawless, anarchic, where the criminals have the guns and the government is powerless to stop violence. Sure, you can send in troops, police, etc. but usually after the fact. And when they leave, the drug cartels are again in charge, always able to intimidate. Any functioning democracy depends on its mass media's ability to gather and report the facts. What if that vital sector is so intimidated that it can't do its job? Like the August 2nd Page One Washington Post story's headline: In Mexico's Nuevo Laredo, drug cartels dictate media coverage

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"Two weeks ago, Mexican soldiers clashed here with drug cartel gangsters in running gun battles that lasted five hours. The outlaws hijacked vehicles, including a bus, for use as barricades and battering rams. Terrified residents scrambled for safety. At least a dozen people were killed, including bystanders. Children were wounded in the crossfire. Not a single word about it appeared in the local news media." (Emphasis added)

Folks, this is the way Chicago used to be before the repeal of prohibition in 1933. Al Capone and his thugs had the power to intimidate most of its citizens. Now we learn that is happening in a Mexican border town If our own Federal government, loudly proclaiming its "preemption" privileges while dawdling indolently along in its feckless, arrogant ways, this kind of violence could easily happen here. How do we really know it hasn't already? Who in authority in our government here has already been bought off?