PARIS HILTON AND THE DEBT OF THE DEAD

Paris Hilton was arrested late last Friday night in Las Vegas for possession of cocaine after police stopped the vehicle in which she was riding because the unmistakable smell of burnt marijuana was emanating from the vehicle. When the police searched Paris, they found cocaine in her purse.

That news item comes on the heels of a discovery by Mexican authorities of a mass grave in San Fernando, a village about 100 miles south of the U.S. border, where the bodies of 58 men and 14 women were dumped after being brutally slaughtered by members of the Zetas drug cartel.

The Zetas cartel and several other Mexican drug cartels are locked in a bloody war for control of the lucrative drug supply lines for shipping cocaine and marijuana to the United States, and the level of atrocities being committed by these drug cartels on the innocent Mexican population caught in the crossfire, is quickly reaching staggering proportions. Last month, 51 bodies were discovered in a field near Monterrey, Mexico. Two months ago, 55 bodies were ditched in a mine near Taxco, a city south of Mexico City. And those body counts are just the tip of the iceberg.

Mexican authorities report that over the past four years, approximately 28,000 people have been killed in Mexico in the on-going civil war amongst drug cartels and the simultaneous crackdown by the Mexican government on drug trafficking activities. As the war between drug cartels ratchets up, thousands more deaths are expected.

When I look at both of those news stories together, I can't help but wonder how many innocent people were brutally slaughtered and dumped in unmarked graves, so that Paris Hilton could enhance her evening with a few puffs of marijuana and a hit of cocaine. Then again, I doubt Paris Hilton even cares. As I type these words, I'm sure her lawyers are working on a strategy to try to shield her from ever having to take responsibility for the cocaine she was carrying. Whether they are successful remains to be seen, but one thing is beyond doubt - Paris Hilton will never pay the full price for the cocaine she possessed. The dead souls in Mexico paid it for her.