Drug wars appear to be escalating in Mexico, with violence spilling across the border into the United States. As Mark Landler reported today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the first time acknowledged that Americans’ demand for drugs feeds the Mexican drug trade and all its ills. So what’s her solution? Secretary Clinton reportedly wants to beef up Mexico’s anti-drug law enforcement. But that’s not necessarily what traditional economics would prescribe. Civil liberties and morality debates aside, many economists say drug legalization, rather than heightened prohibition, is the answer. Plenty of economists, legal scholars, journalists and even drug law enforcement...
