Observer spikes contribution on causes of a world-wide problem shock

Here's my letter that didn't get into last Sunday's Observer:

As you say, there are no easy answers to the migration problem (Separating children from parents marks a new moral low, Leader, 24.06.18).

Trump has disgraced himself and his country by treating children as he has done, but at the same time, the whole world is failing to look at, let alone address, the actual causes of migration. People do not leave family, friends and country on a whim. They are driven to emigrate by war, oppression and poverty. In the case of Mexico, it is a war, the Mexican Drugs War, one of the four biggest wars burning at the moment, that they are running from.  

The Mexican Government declared war on drug gangs in 2006 with the stated aim of curbing the violence, and since that time, deaths have increased from about 10,000 a year to 14,000. The drugs in question are cannabis and cocaine. For cannabis, it is a no-brainer. Decriminalise it. Uruguay and Canada have already done so, as have one or two US states. 

Cocaine is going to cause a bit of head-scratching, because of the social and health damages caused in the drug supply chain, but once we realise that these damages are due to the drug’s criminal status rather than the drug itself, cocaine itself can be de-criminalised and regulated.

It is the drug barons themselves who will be the source of the biggest objections (criminals do not take easily to becoming  corporate directors and  paying taxes), but they will use fossilised moralists as their loudspeaker system. 

With a bit of luck though, people will remember the moral low that Trump stooped to by orphaning war refugees, and will welcome decriminalisation in the name of less refugees.