“…Amid the partisan-fueled scandal, too few are questioning the reason Mexican criminals find it profitable to murder so many people year after year. We know these thugs have an insatiable desire for powerful guns, but why? The answer, as ever, is the official policy of the U.S. government to prohibit the legal trade of drugs from Mexico. The War on Drugs is the reason Operation Fast and Furious was conceived. It’s also behind the deaths of 50,000 innocent Mexicans over the last five years, the deaths of 10,000 Americans each year, the imprisonment of 1 million Americans each year and the spending of $44 billion of taxpayer funds annually.” – Richard Lorenc
IT is my hope that our government and citizens will see this obvious truth before I die and STOP THE WAR ON DRUGS.
+1
Legalize the weed.
I support it. If you cut the head the body dies. Kill the illegal cash flow, and theyll go legit or find a new criminal enterprise
Go legit? Doing what?
Doing what they do now – producing drugs.
I doubt it. It’s far too easy to grow yourself. In much of the country weed once planted will grow without human intervention.
I believe that most of the cartels will switch over to kidnapping as a primary means of income.
Who grows the weed, processes the cocaine and heroin once its legal? Anybody that wants to? The Cartels become legitimate taxpaying businessmen overnight? Why would they choose to get out of the business just because there is suddenly more competition?
I doubt that they would “Choose to get out of the business just because of more competition.” They would have NO choice about the matter.
Why?
Because it is very unlikely that a Criminal organization can compete with a professionally run Argri-business here in the US. Think of the tobacco giants here in the US. They have huge networks of farms. They also have orderly, efficient and Legal logistics: transport, processing, distribution, advertisement, etc etc.
Existing US Agricultural corporations could produce a better quality product for less money and still sell it for a reasonable profit while undercutting the price from the Cartels.
The parallels between this and prohibition are uncanny. Anyone who has ever studied it would say My God – we’re making the same mistakes again! Ken Burns even recently did a multipart documentary on prohibition. At least the gangsters mostly stuck to killing each other and rarely killed cops or politicians. Them, they bought.
Legalize marijuana and you cut off their air supply.
What makes you think politicians aren’t still being bought?
+10 for the Bong Hottie!!!
I didn’t exactly get the article, I mean I kept looking at the picture!!!!
Its time to face facts people:we lost the war on drugs.
The product being sold has a unique property. Namely, its addictive. So there will ALWAYS be demand for recreational drugs, and so long as there is extensive demand there will be someone willing to address supply no matter how “illegal” the drugs are. If we nuked Mexico tomorrow, some crime syndicate in Toronto CA would start trafficking drugs into America. There’s not enough money to treat every single person addicted to recreational drugs, and we certainly don’t have enough cash to fight the cartels via police action. They can outbid, outprice, and out-equip any law enforcement agency on the planet. If that doesn’t work they simply buy off the politicians who control the police.
We could send 1s SFOD-D down to Central America from some house cleaning, but in 5 years we’ll end up doing it again somewhere else.
The only lasting solution is to face the truth that current policy is a complete failure.
Wanna know how long it would take to cut the knees out from under the Mexican Narco Terroist Cartels?
One Growing Season. Less than one year.
Leagalize marijuana. Then get RJ Reynolds and a few other Big tobacco companies to start growing marijuana and the market for illegal weed would be erased in one year. Gone. Never to return. Marijuana makes up a big portion (I dont know how much, but has to be significant) of the profit that sustains the Cartels.
The USA would reap the tax revenue which would help state budgets. We would save money by Not incarcerating hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders. We would save money by being able to direct out law enforcement to more pressing matters. And we would go a long way to helping Mexico put an end to their war with the cartels.
This is such an obvious solution that it staggers the mind that it has not happened yet.
“The USA would reap the tax revenue[…]”
I always take issue with statements such as that when discussing the War On Drugs (WOD).
The idea of capitulation to the State in the form of paying taxes in exchange for the State to stop prohibiting that which it has no business prohibiting in the first place is absurd.
Under what authority do federal and state governments decide what substances a supposedly free™ people may or may not ingest into their own bodies? There was much debate and hand-wringing over Mayor Bloomberg’s recent actions vis-à-vis pops (a lot of people call them sodas, I guess?) of a certain size. How is that any different than what you propose?
If you concede the fact that a government has the authority to tax and regulate one thing, ever hungry and eager to cram more and more into its gaping maw, government will always find a way to extend and increase its authority to lay its hands on more and more of your wealth.
Don’t believe it? Have a look at your paycheck. What percentage of your productivity is skimmed right off the top as tribute to the king? What actual percentage of what the king allows you to keep is again skimmed off the top in the form of other taxes? I’d be willing to bet that for every dollar you earn that you are allowed to have, at least a quarter of it is eaten in the form of taxes.
Easy there, killer. He’s referring to sales tax mostly, though there’s the possibility of increased “sin tax” like they have with alcohol and cigarettes.
You might live in one of those rare states that doesn’t have sales tax, but most of us do. Not to mention that they’d pay tax on the land used to produce the drugs and tax on their profits.
I do live in such a state. Michigan levies a 6% sales tax.
I can’t say as though I understand from whence any state divines authority for that act, either.
Same with so-called “sin tax”. From where does any state get its authority to tax religion-based misdeeds?
Same with property tax. What is a property tax if not a direct modern-day implementation of paying tribute to the King?
Take a step back and look at the entire issue. Why capitulate one single iota of freedom?
Why?
The reason the drug war will never end is because too many people would lose their jobs. Think about all the cops, corrections officers, judges and criminal defense attorneys who would lose their jobs. The only jobs which would be created would be primarily low paying migrant workers and retail distribution, along with a small amount of trucking jobs.
The politicians don’t care about budget deficits, they’ll be filled one way or another with your money. Dont try bringing up pseudo-legalization measures, such as the one Chicago will be voting on next week, although the punishment for possession will be a fine, you can still be jailed on a paraphernalia charge.
Agreed. If it was more profitable to legalize drugs, then drugs would be legalized tomorrow.
Maybe they could find work arresting convicting and incarcerating corrupt members of our government? ATF alone would sustain them for decades.
Feh. Corruption is an integral part of the Mexican culture.
We’ve handed Mexico a million jobs, and billions of dollars that we need here at home, and it’s done ZERO good. NONE.
The Mexican government, ruled by the bribe, is not repairable. Legalize pot? Heh. They will push cocaine. Or heroin. or meth. Or ecstasy.Legalize all of them? There’s prostitution, human slavery, you name it. Like water, gang driven crime seeks it’s own level. There is even advanced chemistry to come of with newer and ever more destructive molecules to offer a new sort of high.
For our part, there is a percentage of this nation who see nothing wrong with funding the narco cartels as long as they can pass their time getting stupefied on narcotics.
Fail to secure the border and you get what you get.
And for clarity, someone need to define the “war on drugs”. I find that most often what it meant is, “the war on pot”. If that’s what is meant, then advocates need to use that slogan. If you are willing to be intellectually honest and say “well what I mean is, I want to get high on my front porch any time I want”, then fine, we can have that discussion. If you insist on framing it in a war on drugs scenario, or especially the medical pot canard, don’t bother.
Meanwhile, I consider the issue of gun rights, to be completely separate and disconnected from narcotics, as thy are from any other crime.
Legalize the ganga…that’s 80% of the Cartel’s income. Yes, legalizing would change things overnight. If you took much of the profitibility out of weed and made it legal for everyone in the states to get into production, it would seriously impact the cartels. Sure, they might still be able to produce and sell more cheaply than US sources but it would make a big dent in their income/power. It’s a better half-solution than the ridiculous farce we’re subscribed to now. Then we’d only have to fight their increased production of meth, heroin, cocaine, MDMA, etc…sheesh.
anyone who is for the war on drugs hates freedom
Who’s the bimbo?
We can always count on you to ask the important questions… 😉
i swear, i know this chick from college. She’s from pittsburgh. Where’d you get the photo?
Totally and completely agree. To stop a machine you stop its fuel. Alcohol prohibition fueled and created Capone. Drug prohibition has fueled and created the zetas.
Ending the war on drugs would be a another crushing blow to anti gunners everywhere.
THERE is no perfect and ideal solution to any problem. To refuse a solution to the drug problem because it is not perfect is to stick your head in the sand. Stand on your ideals long enough and eventually there won’t be anything left to stand for (for which to stand.)
WHY do I bother; talking to some of you guys is like trying to reason with a tree.
Anyone who wonders where the state(s) / feds get their authority to tax, try not paying them. They’ll be happy to explain it to you.
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