Regarding "Soldiers versus Narco-Soldiers"

Alex Sanchez's recent piece on Mexico's rampant drug violence elicited a response from Mr. Ramon E. Dapena Vidal stating that COHA made no mention of "the most realistic fact present in the problem analyzed." The original text of Mr. Dapena Vidal's response is below:

In your article on the mexican drug tragedy I do not find any mention of the most realistic fact present in the problem analyzed. The problem is not a criminal problem, it's an economical one. There is a 200 billion a year market for illegal drug sales in the USA. The simplest rules of Economics say that where there is a market there will also be somebody to supply it. The solution? That the USA Congress legalize drugs, in which case the market will cease to exist and ll the money spent on anti-criminal activity could be spent in health and public education. The question is: Why does'nt Congress legalize it? In finding an answer you come before the fact that those "honest and anonymous" people who, in the shadows, finance the importers in exchange for millions in return, also finance and put pressure on Congressmen, while donating to the big Christian Fundamentalist churches. Without a market there would not be such an exhorbitant production of drugs and coca will go back to being the Andes' natives daily "coffee".