Irish Examiner view: Drugs war taking its toll on society

There will be profound consequences for social cohesion and general health and wealth if these trends continue

The Kinahan cartel is among the continent’s top cocaine trafficking networks.

Donald Trump favoured a short way of dealing with Mexican drug barons, according to a new book from a Pentagon insider: fire off a few missiles over the border to destroy cartel labs, then deny that the US was responsible for the attack.

The assertion, contained in a new memoir A Sacred Oath by former US defence secretary Mark Esper and serialised in The New York Times, may have been one of those examples of blue-sky thinking beloved of shows such as, for example, The Apprentice, where wild solutions are proposed for problems and then winnowed to see if something sensible can be extracted from mad, unrestrained contemplation.