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MU Students Call an End to US-Mexico Drug Prohibition COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - While swine flu deaths in Mexico have received a lot of attention lately, there's a deadly force affecting even more of our neighbors down south. KBIA's Maureen McCollum has more on how a national student organization says ending the war on drugs will alleviate the violence.


Drug policy is an issue that many people don't take seriously, but one organization wants people to look at the reality of it.

More than fifty chapters of Students for Sensible Drug Policy nationwide demonstrated on Cinco de Mayo yesterday, calling for an end to the drug prohibition. SSDP National Associate Director Micah Daigle says it's not always the drugs that kill people, it's the warring between drug cartels. He says it's similar to the violence between mobsters and bootleggers of the alcohol prohibition era.

"So we look at this as not a drug related violence problem, but a prohibition violence problem."

Daigle says legalizing drugs is not surrendering to the War on Drugs, but a way to bring them into a regulated market, therefore taking the profits out of the cartels' pockets. He also says more money can be used on treatment and education rather than incarceration.

On the University of Missouri campus yesterday, students displayed seventy-two Mexican flags to represent the 7200 people killed since 2008 as a result of the warring cartels.

MU's SSDP President Evan Groll says the drug problem in the United States creates a demand for drugs in Mexico- which is a lucrative business. He says SSDP does not endorse drug use, though that can be a common misconception about the group.

"I think legalization, decriminalization, and even regulation is a very subjective term a lot of people throw around. It's like, 'Well you want drugs to be legal.' Well yeah, in the same sense that I want alcohol to be legal, or tobacco, or Oxycotin, or morphine, under certain regulations by medical professions making those decisions as opposed to law enforcement and politicians."

Groll says a change in drug policy could lead to a decrease in violence. While some people have brought up legalization as a political discussion, Daigle says he hopes people start taking drug policy reform seriously.
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