Raunt! Although smoking pot won't kill you, it is killing others.

Last night, I learned that a relative's relative was killed by drug traffickers in Mexico. He was about 20. I'm a believer in the "Mi Casa Es Su Casa" mentality and in this case, that saying translates to "Your Nephew Is My Nephew". Hearing about his murder set off a physical reaction in my brain that reaches all the way down into my soul. I'd like to scream: "By using illegal drugs you are contributing to drug trafficking which has created slave labor, oppression, and all-to-often the murdering of Mexican youth. You are literally smoking out a generation." But since I can't scream it loudly enough, I'm going to Blog it.

That scream is really how I feel. It's how I've felt for a long time. I think since I first read about a massacre in a parking lot somewhere near the Mexican-US border. The kids who were killed were tossed in a shallow grave and the photograph mimicked those you see of the Holocaust graves, except in this picture, you saw Levi tags and Nike logos, Hello Kitty purses and sandals. I'm tired of feeling like I can't talk about this because people will think I'm being preachy.

I am being preachy. And I mean this message like a religious zealot means "Jesus Saves". When you smoke pot/other drugs coming out of Mexico you are contributing to the killing of someone's relatives because that's how that business is. So STOP IT. I think it's just that simple.

(For those snarky, sarcastic pals with a source out of Iowa: sure, quit reading.)

There are a lot of things that tick me off this much: War, Starvation, Poverty, Human Trafficking, Child Abuse ... ya'know, stuff of oppression and horror. These things seem insurmountable to me. Putting down a joint doesn't seem insurmountable—especially since I've been told by people who use it that pot isn't addictive. It seems like a smart, socially responsible thing to do. Use your newly found time to petition for making it legal if you want. It's a free country.

Smoking pot is a choice, right? This nephew didn't have a choice about being killed. He was kidnapped in the middle of the day while working on his family's farm. He was held hostage as a slave laborer, he escaped and came home but was found and murdered by his kidnappers. This scenario is happening a lot. Enough that for the first time in my life, my relatives express fear about going to certain States in Mexico. I'm really sad that anyone's relatives are being kidnapped and murdered just because anyone else wants to smoke pot. In an overly simplistic and perhaps inanely stated scenario: if children in Portland were being kidnapped and forced to harvest grapes on the Oregon coast at gunpoint, I'd stop drinking wine. Come on, people.

My take on illegal drugs is simple: they are illegal. I'm not preaching a moral statement here, it's a fact: when a drug is illegal, the business around distributing it is nasty. When you use illegal drugs, you're breaking the law and you could go to jail and/or get fined. Sure, you might be willing to take a chance on getting fined or getting tossed in jail for a bit, but are you seriously willing to have a nephew killed just to smoke a doobie? 

This choice isn't all that different than choosing to drive drunk (illegal) which I also hope you don't do. Nor is it all that dissimilar to choosing to buy Apple products (legal) now that we know about the hellish factory conditions: you're contributing to a rise in Chinese suicides. We've cried foul before and made a difference ... like when we had knowledge of sweatshops being used by Nike and The Gap. Right now, celebrity men are holding up signs on YouTube protesting Child Prostitution. How about holding off on pot and protesting Child Execution? 

Illegal or legal, some personal actions/choices of ours contribute to horrible personal situations for others. The good thing is knowledge, which is often referred to as power. Once you know what you're contributing to, you have a choice about whether to make that choice again. This Blog's plea is to make a choice to not contribute to the killings in Mexico. I believe you will make a difference.