The "summer of love" at Barker Ranch?
Posted on 03/03/2012 6:19:58 AM PST by AtlasStalled
The United States may be ready to capitulate in the drug wars.
This week Vice President Joe Biden heads south of the border to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and a number of presidents from Central American countries including Costa Rica and Guatemala who "have said in recent weeks they'd like to open up the discussion of legalizing drugs" as reported by Martha Mendoza for The Associated Press.
Last week at a conference on transnational crime a security official for the Organization of American States warned that the drug cartels "are posing a growing threat to democracy in Latin America" as reported by BBC News: "cartels are influencing elections by threatening politicians and even running their own candidates, OAS Secretary for Multidimensional Security Adam Blackwell said."
Allegations of ties between Mexican politicians and narco traffickers have become routine, and U.S. officials say "that even the most dedicated public servants can't avoid the taint of drug cartels in some areas of the country where mobsters are the de facto overlords" as reported by Tim Johnson for McClatchy Newspapers.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finally is recognizing "intelligence reports that Latin American drug cartels are closely linked with Hezbollah and Iran" as reported by Jim Kouri for The Examiner.
Maybe the U.S. has to prepare for losing the drug wars in order to save democracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at bitterqueen.typepad.com ...
Pot, for example, grows out of the ground. It needs some sunlight, water, and maybe a little fertilizer.
How could any "Drug Lord" make money selling it? The enormous profits are only due to the legal risks.
The cost of manufacture and delivery of most other drugs would likewise be very minimal compared to today's artificially inflated prices.
How does Phillip Morris make enormous money selling tobacco?
Don’t be naive. The Cartel Drug Lords are mafia that control politicians, banks, hotels, resorts, casinos. They are not going to be stopped by silly people that think that legalization will solve all problems, far from it.
Pot and other drugs will be regulated and only those licensed to distribute will be allowed to sell it. The Cartels will kill their way to securing the distribution rights just as they do now in Mexico and also in the USA.
They also control prostitution, murder for hire, loan sharking and extortion.
You are playing with fire if you think legalization will make them go away.
Legalization will reduce their risks, secure their profits and allow them to gain revenue streams from addicting more and more users.
Again don’t be naive.
Medical marijuana programs are not run by the cartels, so why would regulating marijuana like alcohol be any different?
Answer me this. Do you support the authority of states under the Tenth Amendment to conduct medical marijuana programs without fedgov interference, or do you support fedgov's use of the expansive Commerce Clause to shut them down?
Nonsense. If the level of corruption and violence associated with illegal drugs were reduced to that associated with alcohol or tobacco, the War on Some Drugs would be over.
Sales of cigarettes and alcohol don't jeopardize my rights or justify the swat teams now to be found in practically every community.
Medical marijuana is not generalized legal marijuana. When pot is legal there won’t be a need for medical prescriptions. So your remark is pointless and misguided.
Regulating alcohol entails licensing and distribution rights. Such operations are populated by organized crime families who support prominent politicians:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/mccain_s_mob_connections_146.html
It will be different for marijuana and narcotics, the Columbian Cartels are terrorists, they will control all marijuana licenses and distribution. They control more than half of Mexico now and they will control large parts of the USA once the law lets them in. They will place prominent politicians on their payroll who on the surface will be like Romney and tell you whatever you want to hear but at core won’t care a twit about your silly conservatism. All they will care about is protecting their crime rackets and their distribution channels, legal or not.
Post #45 reveals why you are naive. You want to give the keys to the City away to the mob? Oh you don’t think that will happen? You are more than naive, you are aiding and abetting the Drug Lords because legalization leads to them securing their turf. And rest assured they will put their people in power over you.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/mccain_s_mob_connections_146.html
Huh? Medical mj is a thriving business. CA is collecting the neighborhood of 1B in sales and $100M in tax revenues in CA alone. You want us to believe that the cartels wouldn't take advantage of this if they could? Your argument makes no sense.
You avoided my question on the Constitution. Let's try again.
Do you support the authority of states under the Tenth Amendment to conduct medical marijuana programs without fedgov interference, or do you support fedgov's use of the expansive Commerce Clause to shut them down?
There is not an unlimited market for illegal drugs. Even if legalization doubled the number of users, the price of drugs would plummet to a tenth or a hundredth of the present price. If the mob doesn't have the power to dominate my life today with their present resources then there is no way they are going to be able to dominate with a fifth or a tenth of the resources.
Just how many cities are dominated by tobacco or alcohol cartels? Are the mobs in charge of alcohol sales today? Why not? I'll tell you why not. Because there isn't enough money in it.
Just what is stopping this worse case scenario that you are fearing from happening NOW? How is the illegality of many of these drugs hampering the plans of the cartels?
Today it isn't safe to enter isolated areas of the Mendocino forest because it is rife with illegal pot gardens. Who is going to be growing pot in a national forest if it becomes legal to grow it in one's own yard?
If you bothered to look at my posting history you would see I am one of the strongest conservatives on this forum and am all for the 10th Amendment so I don’t need to put up with your amateur constitutional crap.
Your reference to California making billions on medical marijuana is irrelevant. When pot is legal there won’t be any medical marijuana, there will be only marijuana.
And your reference to California ignores it is a state that is f*cked up beyond all hope. A state indeed making profit off of drug sales in the name of medicine which any rational person knows is a crock.
We are at war with terrorist narco elements that will benefit from legalization because it will legitimize their operations:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2853263/posts
You seem to think that legalization of pot will stop the war, it will not. It will bring it closer to everyone. In areas they control, the cartel bosses have effectively secured their own risk to a level of legalization so much so they do everything in the open. And yet they still murder brutally, leaving severed heads in public view and bombing public places. Now let that sink in. In areas where they have no risk they still murder brutally. They still run extortion rackets. They still rob and shake down passersby.
And when they get control of marijuana distribution they will bring in the meth, crack, heroin and any number of narcotics, hallucinogens and make profits with it.
The war with cartels will never stop until we get serious. We are not even half serious now.
Let me put it to you this way: you want to put crap into your body, put more crap into your head than is already there then you better not be working anywhere near where my car brakes are getting fixed, where my airplane is getting maintenance, where anything that affects my safety and my family’s safety is taking place.
And don’t bring your drugs anywhere near my kids or my family or else you will see what I do to you will make the cartel actions look like Sunday School Church service. Got it?
If you grow weed on your own, you're a criminal, but if you obtain a license from the state you can make over $100,000 a year.
Funny thing is the State is also the biggest bookie. Play poker at home, you can get busted, but you can put yourself in the poorhouse playing all their lotteries and scratch tickets.
Boy oh boy, I can hardly wait until Hollywood Casino opens up the table games...
I see. You are motivated by the fear that your own children will choose drugs if they are legal. That's too bad. I don't have that problem.
I presume that you have tracked down and killed all the drug dealers in your own community. What are you doing about the tobacco and alcohol manufacturers? You must be very busy.
You dodged my question again. But no, you are not all for the Tenth Amendment. You support the expansive Commerce Clause when it suits you. You just don't have the honesty to admit it.
Your reference to California making billions on medical marijuana is irrelevant. When pot is legal there won’t be any medical marijuana, there will be only marijuana.
You said that earlier and it still makes no sense. Cartels are killing each other over a large but finite market and yet they leave a billion dollar market in medical marijuana alone? The fact is that a black market cannot compete against a well regulated above ground market.
[I am one of the strongest conservatives on this forum]
You've confused delusional arrogance with strength.
[You seem to think that legalization of pot will stop the war, it will not. It will bring it closer to everyone.]
If marijuana is legalized, everyone who wants it will be growing it; and not the weak rope they were smoking in 1929 either - but genetically selected, brain frying, psycho weed.
The result will be the pacifist / psychotic facilitation of this:
YURI BEZMENOV:1. Ideological subversion is the process which is [a] legitimate, old word, and open. You can see it with your own eyes. All American mass media has to do is to "unplug bananas" from their ears, open up their eyes, and they can see it. There is no mystery.It has nothing to do with espionage. I know that espionage intelligence gathering looks more romantic. It sells more deodorants through the advertising. That's probably why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond types of films. But in reality the main emphasis of the KGB is NOT in the area of intelligence at all.According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.The first stage being "demoralization".It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism....Same way as in a small town of Hua in South Vietnam; several thousands of Vietnamese were executed in one night when the city was captured by [the] Viet Cong for only two days; and American CIA could never figure out - how could [the communists] possibly know each Individual, where he lives, where to get him; and [in order that they] would be arrested in one night basically in four hours before dawn, put on a van, driven out of the city limits and shot.--KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov--Soviet Subversion of the Free Press (Ideological subversion, Destabilization, CRISIS - and the KGB)
So you like to stalk people Mr. Loman?
Some will smoke stronger, some weaker - just like some drink beer and some drink Everclear. The nation has survived legal hard liquor and we'll survive legal weed, Chicken-Little-meets-Reefer-Madness hysteria notwithstanding.
In order to maintain their risklessness. Rumrunners used to murder brutally - then the drug alcohol was legalized, and all their ruthlessness didn't save them from losing their business.
better not be working anywhere near where my car brakes are getting fixed, where my airplane is getting maintenance, where anything that affects my safety and my family’s safety is taking place.
Is it OK if he's drunk while doing those things? If not, to make sure he isn't would it be a good policy to enact a general blanket ban on alcohol?
You obviously didn’t see the link I provided earlier. When a drug including alcohol gets legalized, the mafia consolidates and secures it distribution area and operations. they no longer have to risk battles with law enforcement, the field is clear and they are free to profit and pursue other criminal activity such as prostitution and extortion.
Here is the link on McCain again:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/mccain_s_mob_connections_146.html
Note in this link that the original mafia from the Prohibition area is now legitimate and they have legitimate power. They are the ones that control McCain ultimately. Ever wonder how a moron like Megan McCain gets publicity for her idiocy, how she gets invited on TV etc.? She has the mob behind her indirectly through her mother.
So when we give the keys to legalized drug trade to the Columbian Cartels who are the ones behind the Mexican madness, we invite them in so they can place their people in our elected offices, we invite them in to run other crime operations with a beachfront in legalized marijuana, which they will lace with addictive additives just as the tobacco companies do to cigarettes, and they will also run meth, crack and heroin.
They will also pour money into gun control legislation, political campaigns that elect their people who are programmed to take away your rights.
Remember that Pablo Escobar was so wealthy in Columbia that he was funding a means to procure nuclear weapons to be used against the USA. These are the kinds of people you will be letting in the door, they types that hire drug crazed assassins that sever off heads of innocents to send a message. It is terrorism.
No the drug lords will not lose their businesses, they will expand them, they will become the next Phillip-Morris.
Your link does not support your generalizations - it shows only that a single local mob branch in Arizona bought into the legal alcohol business when Prohibition ended. There have probably been a handful of other such cases ... but there's no evidence whatsoever that the mob is a major player in the alcohol trade today.
(Just curious: Do you agree with your source's characterization of 'the “fix” that made George W. Bush president in a rightly disputed election'?)
better not be working anywhere near where my car brakes are getting fixed, where my airplane is getting maintenance, where anything that affects my safety and my family’s safety is taking place.
Is it OK if he's drunk while doing those things? If not, to make sure he isn't would it be a good policy to enact a general blanket ban on alcohol?
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