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Mexico Legalizes Drug Possession
NYT ^ | August 21, 2009 | AP

Posted on 08/21/2009 2:53:19 AM PDT by SolidWood

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.

The law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution; the law goes into effect on Friday.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Mexico
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; cocaine; commonsense; drugcartels; drugs; drugtourism; drugtrafficking; givemeliberty; heroin; idiotalert; immigration; legalizeddrugs; lping; lsd; marijuana; meth; mexico; mrleroymovessouth; potheads; stuckonstupid; vivalarevolucion; wod
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To: dragnet2

“Don’t lose site of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans are making a living off drugs being illegal. “


You are right, and I am certain that this has a lot to do with why these policies will never be examined. At least not until we have a true governmental reform.


121 posted on 08/21/2009 12:40:33 PM PDT by camp_steveo
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To: mvpel
Our whole society?

Unless you think drug addiction affects only the drug addict, then yes, our whole society would be - and IS being - destroyed by this vice.

Do you really think that the only thing keeping most people from frying their brains on drugs is the threat of arrest?

No, not the threat of arrest. Law does more than just punish violators. It also reflects society's condemnation of the behavior outlawed. I'd argue that this is frequently a more powerful force than the threat of punishment. To remove that restraint (particularly as a result of popular pressure) is to go a long way in legitimizing the behavior.

Regarding tobacco and alcohol: Though there are many dry counties and a few "tobacco-free" municipalities, in large part we have determined that the externalities which accompany these addictions/abuses are outweighed by liberty concerns. Controls on these habits are constantly revised, however, once efforts to socialize the costs have been sufficiently successful. (But that's all according to plan.)

but we wouldn't have police kicking down doors in the middle of the night or drug gang turf wars, and I think that's a fair trade.

There are better solutions than the two we've been offered: tyranny vs. suicide. Unfortunately though, it takes a virtuous people to remain free, and we ain't a virtuous people anymore. So pick yer poison.
122 posted on 08/21/2009 12:40:40 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: djf

For the 1st time in my life I can say “GOD BLESS MEXICO!”.

I wonder what the Drug Warriors in this country will do if this actually works & helps to reduce crime & the influence of the Narco-Terrorists in Mexico.


123 posted on 08/21/2009 12:42:27 PM PDT by ChrisInAR (The Tenth Amendment is still the Supreme Law of the Land, folks -- start enforcing it for a CHANGE!)
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To: Munz
I am all for the constitution, less government involvement.

Do you think the Wickard decision, which expanded the scope of the Commerce Clause during FDR's reign, is consistent with the clause's original meaning... yes or no?

124 posted on 08/21/2009 12:44:48 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: bamahead; mvpel
Laws are more confused than people.


125 posted on 08/21/2009 12:45:44 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Double your income. Fire the government)
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To: Munz

It has EVERYTHING to do with invasion of rights by government. It has everything to do with tearing up the Constitution for EVERYONE in the name of “protecting” some from themselves by killing them or jailing them because they use the UNAPPROVED recreational substances. It is the police checkpoints and “Your papers, if you please (or even if you don’t)” for EVERYONE in the name of the war on some drugs. It is the trashing of the Fourth amendment in particular and the militarization of cops and the busting in the wrong doors in the middle of the night and killing and maiming INNOCENTS in the name of the WOsD. It is a Liberal’s wetdream of control handed them by so-called “conservatives” and YOU have a LOT to answer for.


126 posted on 08/21/2009 12:45:52 PM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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To: SolidWood

Wonderful! Mexico legalizes the crap down there, and grows it here on our public lands. These people really know how to use our lack of enforcement against us, don’t they? A young man died because of Mexican drug cartels yesterday.

BAKER CITY, Ore. - A U.S. Forest Service employee is dead after being struck by a falling tree as he helped clean up a marijuana growing operation in eastern Oregon.

Forest Service workers and members of the Baker County Narcotics Team were removing a marijuana garden in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest southwest of Unity when the dead tree toppled and hit the man Thursday morning.

The Oregonian reports that the death is being investigated by federal, state and local authorities.[snip]

http://www.adn.com/nation/story/905973.html

ALSO:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2320904/posts

Mexico’s narcoterror is here. They’re recruiting from our military and fighting for control of our land.

Headline today: Record marijuana grow pulled up by the roots in Siskiyou County

http://www.ktvl.com/articles/marijuana-1191647-siskiyou-county.html

full version video: http://www.ktvl.com/video/?videoId=34835560001&play=now

What is truly interesting about this story is that the local CBS TV , KTVL Channel 10 affiliate finally ‘gets it’. They actually did some reporting on these pot farms being run on public lands by organized Mexican Drug Cartels after years of many of us pleading with them to inform the public of this danger. What is frightening, is how real that danger has become.

This marijuana grow stretched 2 miles. For years, our local sheriffs have fought these incursions, only to watch them grow more widespread. Siskiyou county is a conservative, quiet sparsely populated huge land mass. Along peaceful country roads that have been settled by old families, independent, self reliant types, late in the night citizens now hear voices in Spanish conversing as they walk up and down ‘patrolling’.

We knew the cartels were armed, that they contained the worst elements of Mexican organized crime; the Zeta’s, various cartels, MS-13, awol military.
What we didn’t know, is now that their enterprise of growing on millions of acres of USA land became so successful , is that now the cartels are at war with each other over ‘territory’ and contraband crops. One group may go in and cultivate the crop, only to have it taken with force by a better armed gang.

We have been warned for years in the counties of No.California and So. Oregon to stay clear of the ‘woods’, to never approach anything that looked like a pot farm.
Now we are being warned of the war between the cartels taking place on our peaceful country lanes. It is easier for the cartels to recruit laborers, with less risk to grow on these ‘protected sanctuaries’ than it is in Mexico. Where shall we go to escape?

Last week these cartels burned 860,000 acres in California. Will we become ‘collateral’ damage to their fires or their bullets? Unlike Mexico, in what has become an every day occurrence , we’ve had no beheadings...yet.

Our Department of Homeland security is spending billions in Mexico to help them fight these cartels there, to keep any of our guns from entering Mexico. But they say they don’t have the money to stop these invading armies from crossing the border and infiltrating our property. This congress refuses to fund a fence, but they’ll fund our people to go to Mexico and tell you this entire problem is the fault of the USA because some of our guns go to Mexico. When their criminal cast-offs are stopped from coming in, our guns will stop going out since the same people are working both sides of the border.


127 posted on 08/21/2009 12:57:14 PM PDT by AuntB (First the government cripples you, then it tries to sell you a crutch!)
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To: Munz

Yes, human trafficking IS HIGH. But NOT due to drugs or drug use (except as women are deliberately addicted to keep them under control). This trafficking is mainly due to extreme poverty in the countries the women and girls come from and perverted sexual demand in the countries they wind up in... That drug lords may be involved is due to the fact that they already have smuggling routes and distribution points already set up. So one more of your arguments goes up in smoke.


128 posted on 08/21/2009 12:58:38 PM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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To: Loud Mime

“Think about the problems Mexico is enduring before casting stones.”

Better think about the problems MEXICO is causing us!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2320904/posts


129 posted on 08/21/2009 1:00:37 PM PDT by AuntB (First the government cripples you, then it tries to sell you a crutch!)
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To: Munz
It has everything to do with a bunch of drug addicts committing burglary, larceny and robbery to feed their habits.

And why are their habits so expensive to feed? Could it be that the black market drove up the prices because they were illicit?
130 posted on 08/21/2009 1:02:47 PM PDT by bamahead (Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding. -- B.H. Liddell Hart)
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To: LearsFool
A people that opposes and rejects all self-restraint will not be free for long.

The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog. --G.K. Chesterton
131 posted on 08/21/2009 1:04:58 PM PDT by bamahead (Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding. -- B.H. Liddell Hart)
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To: LearsFool

Society (as opposed to government) has ways of controlling behavior WITHOUT laws in place. Look at how, for the most part, smoking has decreased due to societal disapproval. The LAWS followed, unfortunately, but the cessation of smoking was primarily due to society shunning smokers. And look back at history. Divorce was once UNHEARD OF. It was legal and all, but societal norms were such that it virtually NEVER happened. Then society changed (for the worse, mostly) and divorce ran rampant throughout the nation. So you don’t need LAWS to discourage drug use. You need a moral society, which ain’t ever gonna come about as long as people use laws in place of morals.


132 posted on 08/21/2009 1:08:32 PM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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To: SolidWood

Looks like the tourist industry is trying to get all those spring breakers to come back...


133 posted on 08/21/2009 1:14:34 PM PDT by Kenton
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To: LearsFool
"...society that substitutes State coercive restraint for voluntary individual self-restraint."

Unfortunately that's about the only option left for those interested in preserving their society - and all it accomplishes is to postpone the downfall for a short time, at the expense of liberty lost in the process.

As you say, at the expense of liberty.

Also, the surrender of liberty itself atrophies the moral muscles needed for self restraint.

134 posted on 08/21/2009 1:29:34 PM PDT by secretagent
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To: bamahead
The free man owns himself....

That's a good quote. What will happen to a free nation if all its free people decide to freely ruin their lives with drugs?
135 posted on 08/21/2009 1:31:21 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: secretagent
Also, the surrender of liberty itself atrophies the moral muscles needed for self restraint.

Well said. The effect builds upon itself, and our nation accelerates toward its downfall.

As John Adams said: "This Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is inadequate for the governing of any other."

I would argue that the only government adequate for governing an immoral and irreligious people is a powerful tyrant. (Oh wait, isn't that what we have in America?)
136 posted on 08/21/2009 1:37:44 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: LearsFool

THAT has never happened in the history of mankind. True, people find OTHER WAYS to destroy themselves and their nations, but NOT EVER rampant drug use. Usually it’s bread and circuses, living at the expense of others against their will. These sorts of things. Like what did in the Roman Republic, then Empire and what is now doing in the Brits... Drugs? No.


137 posted on 08/21/2009 1:45:35 PM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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To: dcwusmc
Divorce was once UNHEARD OF. It was legal and all...

Divorce without cause ("no-fault" divorce) is a recent legal invention - in the 1970s, iirc. This change proclaimed, in no uncertain terms, that marriage was no longer a lifetime commitment. That, IMO, was the greatest factor in overthrowing society's disapproval of divorce.

You need a moral society, which ain’t ever gonna come about as long as people use laws in place of morals.

Not "in place of", but "to reflect, uphold and reinforce" - that's what I'm suggesting their function is and ought to be.
138 posted on 08/21/2009 1:46:25 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: dcwusmc
THAT has never happened in the history of mankind.

But what would happen if they did?

What would happen if only half of them ruined their lives through their "freedom"? Or a fourth?

What percentage would guarantee the downfall of the nation? And how do you plan to keep the rest of us from joining them? With jackbooted thugs breaking down our doors?
139 posted on 08/21/2009 1:52:43 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: LearsFool

“Not “in place of”, but “to reflect, uphold and reinforce” - that’s what I’m suggesting their function is and ought to be.”

Not only “NO,” but HELL NO! GOVERNMENT HAS NO PLACE IN THE MORALITY BUSINESS. In order to enforce “morality” (and who decides whose morality should be enforced? Judeo-Christian? Sharia? Paganism? Animal sacrifice? HUMAN sacrifice? Who decides? And how?), you must of necessity give government TOTAL CONTROL over the populace, and that is UTTERLY unacceptable.


140 posted on 08/21/2009 1:53:09 PM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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