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 ...
I’ve been thinking about that myself.
Here’s what I think...pot should be eased up on. Let people grow their own. But anyone attempting to sell pot(other than living plants or seeds) should go to jail. Any pot transported across state lines or national borders should be seized and all those involved given EXTRA long prison terms.
I am sick of america’s nonsense with prescription drugs. If I want to buy myself some pills for my back I don’t want the dam government trying to stop me. But if I am caught reselling my pills or using them in ways not meant to be used, then sure, throw the book at me. The current laws exist to protect pharaceutical companies and jack up their prices. Pure and simple.
Yes... How did we survive those first two hundred years without a drug war... :-|
My bet is we are going to legalize dope, and outlaw vitamins.
Just curious, why these drugs you get a life sentence while others which cause way more damage and crime (Nobody ever robbed a liquor store to get a LSD fix) should be legalized?
Next up will be Obama care requiring insurance companies to cover the cost of the recreational drugs. We’re Fluked again:(
LSD and PCP create psychotic states. My calling them Jeckyl/Hyde formulae isn’t really a misuse of language. PCP has been responsible for much of the crime in DC suburban Maryland over a long period of time.
It IS the complete text of the article, so “Why” is a good question.
Obama misses the days when he could snort a line of coke - look for powder residue on the desk in the oval office - his rendition of white stains....
Drugs are not the problem but one of the symptoms. The liberal rot that has eaten away the very roots of our society is the problem.
Not to worry,the drug war is not going away. It's a very effective tool to enslave the American people.
“Do all of that, and the drug problem and 70% of all urban crime will vanish within two years. That would be an optimal solution; but you could simply legalize it all and still be vastly better off than we are now. 150 Years ago, there were no drug laws in America and there were no overwhelming drug problems. How bright do you really need to be to figure that one out?”
Legalize drugs, and we will also create an entire new “drugunderclass” (I claim credit for the word) that will be, for all intents and purposes, unemployable wards of the state.
The reality is that many employers (most?) now test for drug use, and can [legally] refuse to hire those who are verified “users”.
In my field (railroading, now retired), drug testing was mandated by federal law and regulation. No drugs, on or OFF the job. Of course, with random testing, the testing procedures can detect use within the previous weeks. Hard to get around. I was actually “caught” once for opium usage — which was because on the day of the test, I had eaten a hard roll filled with poppy seeds. After a phone conversation with the company medical officer, I was permitted to work -after- submitting to an exam in which they checked me for “needle usage”. Made for an interesting day.
Again, if drugs are made legal, we should expect to see employers “push back” by INCREASING the amount of drug testing, so as to ensure that their employees are drug-free. And those who by personal weakness, aided and abetted by a government system that feeds their habits, will be relegated to the ranks of the permanently unemployed and unemployable. Employers will do this as a matter of self-protection; they will have no choice.
Of course, in keeping with “civil rights”, as a consequence of laws which “make drugs legal”, there will certainly come corresponding laws which ban “drug testing” as a condition of new or continued employment.
It’s only logical that if we “make drugs legal”, that we also “protect the rights” of drug users against evil employers and capitalists, eh?
Yep, which is why the left has been working so hard and so long to legitimize drug use. "Medical" marijuana was a huge victory for the left because it opened up the floodgates for legalization of other illicit drugs.
Of course, in keeping with “civil rights”, as a consequence of laws which “make drugs legal”, there will certainly come corresponding laws which ban “drug testing” as a condition of new or continued employment.
I was about ready to challenge you on your first paragraph but you stole my thunder with the next. Certainly that is what will happen. Can't discriminate against them anymore than you can discriminate against someone for using Lipitor. They're both legal.
Then you'll have 30 year old sluts testifying before Congress that other people should pay for their pot while they're in college.
I think those who postulate that the drug gangs will fold up their tents if drugs are legalized have the ones who have not looked at the lessons of Prohibition. The mob made more money on liquor after 1933 than before. The cartels will switch to other crime, or concentrate on selling to minors, or providing stronger or new varieties. Legalization will not be a magic bullet.
So you support the expansive Commerce Clause and the trampling of the Tenth Amendment? Two appeals court justices, both friends of Scalia, cited his opinion in Raich to uphold Obamacare:
Both Silberman and Sutton cited Scalia’s opinion in 2005 upholding strict federal regulation of marijuana in the case of Angel Raich, a Californian who used home-grown marijuana to relieve her pain. “If Congress could regulate Angel Raich when she grew marijuana on her property for self-consumption,” Sutton wrote, “it is difficult to say Congress may not regulate the 50 million Americans who self-finance their medical care.”
http://mobile.latimes.com/p.p?a=rp&m=b&postId=1165037.
It's the only logical conclusion. Fifty years ago the notion that the government ought to pay for birth control for promiscuous college students would have been laughed at by everyone. Now people are outraged that people would question it. Same thing will happen with dope smokers.
Believe it or not, as much pot as is grown right here in the USA, the Mexican cartels still derive about 60% of their total revenues from Marijuana. This according to one of those PBS or Nova specials I saw about a year ago and cannot name.
That would put a dent in those operations.
The only other step we should take is to build an impenetrable barrier from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Treat it like a border with a hostile military power and station troops along it...with instructions to shoot to kill.
But once legal, there will be ‘licenses’ to distribute and dispense and the Drug Lords will have a monopoly on the licenses. Of course they will lower prices once they bring the volume up and they can do this by processing product with some addictive additives. Next they get control of more hedge funds on Wall St. and do a multi-billion dollar IPO on their new smokes and then they pay off politicians to crush Phillip Morris with devastating restrictions. Phillip Morris will maybe want in on the new smokes action but the Drug Lords will merely behead them and dump the severed parts in the vicinity of OWS who will in turn cheer the decapitation of the evil tobacco magnates.
Oh what a wonderful world it will be to behold. Can’t wait!
Great...legalize hard drugs but require me to show ID to purchase allergy medicine. Yeah, that really makes sense. / sarcasm
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