Therefore, the gunrunner scandal is Mexico’s fault since the demand for the guns is in Mexico. That’s pretty convenient for Obama isn’t it?
The drug (and gun) markets are classic examples of the free market in action. Supply and demand. You simply cannot (short of truly draconian action we’re unwilling to take) control the sale of a product by interfering with supply.
That is because every such interference drives up the price and therefore the profits of the suppliers, which of course encourage them to expand their production and also for newcomers to enter the business. That’s the way the market works.
You can only handle such a problem by controlling demand. No demand, no criminals eager to make money by doing so.
Prohibition created gangs not disimilar to the cartels, though less spectacularly violent. Various government agencies fought the bootleggers for a decade, with essentially zero success. Every time they jailed a “kingpin,” it was hailed as a success in the “war on alcohol.”
It was of course no such thing. All it did was open up promotion and market opportunities for others in the business.
But the 21st Amendment ended the whole industry within days. The now legal alcohol business dropped back to “normal” levels of business profits due to competition, and the bootleggers all had to find other ways to survive.
IOW, the War on Drugs essentially provides price supports to Mexican drug cartels.