Drugs are a key issue in Mexico's presidential race, with some leading candidates talking tough but taking somewhat different approaches to this issue, the Associated Press reported June 18.

Conservative Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party says that drug lords should be extradited to the U.S., and Mexico's courts should be reformed to become more transparent; Roberto Madrazo, the candidate for the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, is calling for tough criminal penalties for drug offenders.

Democratic Revolution Party candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who is leading the polls along with Calderon, says the military should be involved in fighting drugs, but also said that reducing poverty is the key to cutting crime in Mexico. "I don't think you can make much progress with prisons or threats of heavy-handed approaches and tougher laws," he said.

Still, candidates are loathe to take on the drug cartels head-on. "There's a certain amount of reluctance to talk about drug trafficking organizations," said former U.S. anti-drug official Ana Maria Salazar, because "you increase the threat level against the candidate enormously."