Newspapers are reporting this week that more than 2,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico this year--the latest grim news in an ongoing story.
 
Violence has steadily increased in recent years along the U.S. border and in western Mexico as drug cartels wage turf wars. Mexican cartels have risen in power, filling a vacuum created by the dismantling of formerly dominant Colombian cartels.
 
Drug-related violence has hit not only those directly involved in organized drug crime, but law enforcement officers and newspaper reporters. Just this week, six policemen were found shot to death in the state of Michoacan, and a newspaper editor was murdered in the state of Guerrero.
 
One exacerbating factor in the violence may be recent restrictions on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. Access to these ingredients, which can be used to make methamphetamine, has dropped in the past two years both in the U.S. and across the border in Mexico. A federal law that went into effect this summer in the U.S. tracks consumer purchases of medicines containing pseudoephedrine. In Mexico, import quotas for pseudoephedrine have been dramatically lowered.
 
In a report by the Oregonian earlier this month, Mexico's head organized crime prosecutor, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said that reduced pseudoephedrine supply has created a sense of desperation among methamphetamine traffickers. According to the Oregonian report, a barrel of pseudoephedrine that normally sells for $1,500 can bring in as much as $220,000 on the black market.
 
However, this shortage is not likely to last. Various restrictions on methamphetamine precursors have been imposed in the past 40 years, and manufacturers of the drug have always substituted other ingredients. "Where there is demand, there will always be a supply to meet it," said Bill Piper, DPA's director of national affairs. "We should be focusing on treatment for people who abuse meth rather than distracting ourselves with gestures that have a temporary effect at best."

Increased violence, while the most dramatic aspect of Mexico's war on drugs, is not the only problematic development. Corruption among border officials also appears to be on the rise. A U.S. Border Patrol officer was arrested recently on charges that he let drugs pass through customs checkpoints into the U.S. in exchange for cash. The El Paso Times noted that this arrest was part of an ongoing, multi-agency investigation.

As long as prohibition keeps profits outrageously high, corruption and violence will continue to be closely associated with the drug trade in both Mexico and the U.S.  Mexico attempted to shift its enforcement priorities last year with a bill that would have de-prioritized federal prosecution for personal possession of drugs, allowing more federal resources to be used to fight drug trafficking. However, this strategy was quickly abandoned under pressure from the U.S., which cautioned Mexico against appearing tolerant of drug use.