Mexico Just Says Sí To Drugs

A recent bill that passed the Mexican Senate would legalize possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use and President Vicente Fox says that he will sign it. The legislation apparently caught the Bush Administration by surprise. Perhaps because all of the illegal immigrants were fired from government jobs, it appears there is no one left in the State Department who speaks Spanish well enough to read Mexican newspapers and they had no idea that this was in the offing.

This new law has just added fuel to the fire over the debate on immigration. Some believe that in addition to worrying about illegal immigrants from Mexico, we will now have to contend with the young Americans flocking to Mexico to take drugs that Mexicans won't do. A wall between Mexico and the United States may be necessary not just to keep Mexicans out but also to keep Americans in.

Mexico's liberalization of its drug laws sends a terrible message to our young people. For years parents and politicians have taught by example. Many of them tried drugs when they were young, back before we knew drugs were bad for you, and now realize it was a terrible mistake. Speaking from experience they have sent a very clear and consistent message to young people: "Do as I say, not as I did!" What are young people supposed to think now that south of the border they are hearing the message "Just say sí"?

In fact, Mexico has long had a negative influence on Americans. Every year thousands of young Americans flock to Mexican resorts for Spring Break where they are lured into drunken orgies designed to seduce our youth and weaken the moral fabric of our society. Many of these young people learn about sex in Mexico despite the strenuous efforts of abstinence-only sex education to keep all information about sex away from them. In fact, the same libertine Senate that wants to turn Mexico into a drug fiend's paradise passed a bill in March to extend sex education to Kindergartners and Mexico already has a law mandating sex education in primary schools. Many young people are also exposed to alcohol for the first time when they realize they don't have to be 21 to drink in Mexico.

Unfortunately, because of the notoriously corrupt police in Mexico young Americans who get in trouble down there often discover that they can bribe their way out of trouble. They return home with the false impression that people with money can get away with violating the law. Of course, this is not true in the United States, where Rush Limbaugh is a perfect example of the fact that in America even if you are rich and famous you could still go to jail for violating drug laws, which he would have if he were in fact guilty.

So what do weakened Mexican drug laws and loose moral standards have to do with the immigration debate? Some people oppose illegal immigration because they are moved by compassion for American workers, whose jobs are taken by immigrants despite the successful efforts of Republicans to keep the minimum wage low. Others oppose illegal immigration because of a deep and profound respect for the rule of law. But more and more people are troubled by the dangerous ideas being brought into our country by Mexicans and other immigrants.

I have previously pointed out the danger posed by immigrants from Canada, where they also have lax drug laws, as well as gay marriage and low age of consent laws that encourage teens to have sex, while most Americans don't even think about sex until they are 18. In Europe, it's the same story. These liberal ideas are brought to our country not only by immigrants, but also by Americans who travel abroad and through the Internet.

What can we do to protect our culture? Stopping illegal immigration is only the first step, and ultimately we may have to do more. We may have to restrict all immigration from certain countries. We may have to ban all unnecessary travel to these countries. And we may have to think about setting up a firewall like they have in China and some Middle Eastern countries to prevent some of these ideas from coming into our homes on our computers. Fighting illegal immigration may turn out to be just one small but important battle not only in the Drug War but in a much larger Culture War.

Jon Swift, Illegal Immigration, Mexico, Vicente Fox, Rush Limbaugh, Drugs, Drug War, Culture War, Internet, Politics