On the Lack of Effort from Rich Countries

El Universal, after noting that the UN says that 70 percent of the $72 billion global annual income from cocaine traffic remains in rich countries, comes down harder on the US than is typical:

For decades Europe and the US have signaled corruption in developing countries as the principal cause of transnational crime, which exonerates them of guilt.

In the case of Mexico and its combat of drug traffic this unequal relationship is clearer. The northern neighbor refuses to control the free sale of assault weapons that wind up in the hands of the cartels, it doesn't stop the activity of the cartels in their border towns, and it has done almost nothing to reduce the consumption of drugs by its citizens. Why should we then do the dirty work of the US?

The risk is that, with the ineffectiveness of the anti-crime strategies in Europe and the US, other nations refuse to confront the problem. This would be the worst scenario because it would allow drugs to normalize their presence in the "third world".

The developed countries will have to much more than they are doing, or crime will eventually turn into something tolerated and normal on the other side of their borders.