Thousands of college students flock to Mexico every year during spring break in an attempt to get as drunk and/or high as possible every day, and sometimes end up getting themselves into trouble.

A March 4 article on CNN stated: “More than 16,000 people have died in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels shortly after assuming office in 2006.”

That’s startling. No wonder Fresno State has issued warnings to students about traveling to Mexico for spring break. I guess they can do something right after all.

There are many Web sites offering travel packages to Mexico, tailor-made for students. Upon visiting one of these user-unfriendly sites, studenttravelservices.com, I was able to read through what some of the packages offer.

In their lists of destinations, airfare was never tied directly to a package. However, the packages included food, parties and entertainment. To me, it sounds like a kids club on a cruise, except with liquor.

If I found prices for travel packages, they were usually in the higher hundreds of dollars, and some packages cost as much as $2,500.

I thought students could barely afford tuition, books and materials and were marching two weeks ago about escalating fees. I guess there’s always some spare cash for a good time.

If you have the extra money to spend, why not go to Maui instead of Mexico? Hawaii offers the same tropical atmosphere, but with one major difference: you’re still in the US.

Imagine five nights on Maui, with airfare for $1,300, as quoted on orbitz.com, and that’s with booking the trip five days before departure.

Though not all places in Mexico are as dangerous as depicted, it’s still a risky place to go. Why go to a foreign country to potentially be shot by a drug lord? That can happen to you here in Fresno. It’s not my dream vacation.

Going to another place like Hawaii is a much better alternative.

We all know that America is facing tough economic times, especially in the travel industry. If you have the money to travel during spring break, help out by keeping your money here in our country.