As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues high-level talks with Mexico 's leaders this week , her comments about responsibility in the U.S.-Mexico drug trade have struck a chord with officials familiar with U.S. anti-drug efforts . Mexican federal police have been deployed openly in Ciudad Juarez , which borders El Paso , Texas . Clinton said the United States ' `` inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border '' was a major contributor in Mexican violence along the border . She went on to say that the United States has `` a co-responsibility . '' In an interview Wednesday on `` American Morning '' with CNN anchor John Roberts , former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Robert Strang talked about the three-pronged approach needed to curb drug use in America and the need to bust distribution rings . Strang is also CEO of Investigative Management Group . The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity : . John Roberts , CNN anchor : Everybody 's blaming Mexico for [ the U.S. drug trade ] , but the secretary of state yesterday said , 'Hey , the United States shares a lot of the blame because of the pent-up demand here , the insatiable demand for drugs . ' Do you agree with her ? Watch Clinton say , `` We have to do a better job '' » . Robert Strang , former DEA special agent : Let 's face it , the average first drug use is 12 years old in our country . That means kids that are in the sixth grade are trying drugs for the first time . Marijuana , cocaine , heroin , methamphetamine , all these drugs are coming across the border because we demand them . We have the cash to pay for them , and we really are pretty much the No . 1 consumer in the world for these drugs . Roberts : Is the United States doing enough to try to curb demand ? The Office of National Drug Control Policy , I do n't remember much coming out of it during the Bush administration , and I have n't seen anything come out of it in the Obama administration . Strang : We 're trying all the time . I 'm on the board for D.A.R.E . America , and that is teaching kids about the dangers of drugs and violence in schools . And constantly , we 're trying to get money federally for this program and police officers go into the school . They teach the kids . It 's a wonderful program in those trouble years , the fourth , fifth and sixth grade especially , and we need to have a little bit more money in this area . amFIX : React to Strang 's comments about U.S. anti-drug effort . There 's three things , John : It 's treatment , it 's enforcement and it 's education . And it 's like a three-legged stool . If all three things do n't work , it 's going to fall down . So , we can send all of the agents in the world down to the border . We can seize all the coke , heroin , methamphetamine that we want . If we do n't have treatment on demand , and if we 're not educating our kids in our country about the dangers of drugs , the problem 's going to grow . Roberts : When you see the Department of Homeland Security prepared to spend these hundreds of millions of dollars on border security , what do you think ? Strang : I 'm happy that they 're doing something . This is a small piece of the enforcement operation . The best thing to do is like the case that we saw three weeks ago , when the DEA announced 750 arrests involving 250 cities between Mexico and the United States , mostly in the U.S. , this huge distribution network . Because when you dismantle those networks that constantly are putting drugs from the cartels to the street , when you can put those guys in jail , when you take their assets , then you have an impact . Watch how drugs from Mexico enter U.S. » . Roberts : But would you like to see them take some of that money , and you know , they take , I think , what , $ 700 million , and they throw it at the border . Would you like to see them take some of that money , maybe even just a fraction of it , and throw it into prevention programs ? Strang : Absolutely . Instead of going to some of the financial institutions , I 'd like to see it go for the drug problem . I 'd like to see enforcement , treatment and prevention . I 'd like it to be evenly divided , and I really think we could have an impact on the problem . We 've got to look at this a different way . And I think that it 's a combination of these things , and we 're moving in that direction . Let 's hope that we make some headway here .
Robert Smith , former DEA special agent , says drug trafficking starts as early as 12 . 00 : ` ` We can send all of the drugs in the country , '' but border patrol not enough . Money aimed at financial institutions should go to prevention programs , Strang says .