To the editor : Excuse me, but are we ignoring the elephant in the room? This op-ed ( “No military strategy can stop Mexico’s cartels,” Aug. 26) never mentions that the United States is the world’s No. 1 consumer of illicit drugs. Using military force to combat drug cartels is quite a desperate undertaking that will do little in dealing with the root causes of the drug problem in the U.S.: stress, economic insecurity, poverty and mental health issues. And with our current state of uncertainty, the problem is probably going to get worse. We need to create stronger preventive measures to truly reduce our epidemic dependency. The old saying goes: “As long as there is a demand, there’ll always be a supply.” Let’s rid ourselves of the demand.

Armando Cepeda, Anaheim

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