If they "hoped" that assassinating a liberal like Brown would get law enforcement to back off, they are just as looney as Brown is. Such an act would trigger a genuine dirty war between United States "personnel" and drug cartel members. The cartel would lose.
"Relegalizing pot is the LAST thing the cartels want - it would do to them what the end of Prohibition did to rumrunners."
Couldn't agree more. The LAST thing the cartels want is for the United States to legalize pot. So here's a conspiracy theory of mine. Remember how recently Obama was saying that pot was not a priority of his? And remember that the Obama Administration has favored one Cartel over the others? I theorize that the Cartel that Obama favors put a bug in his ear and told him to crack down on the California marijuana clinics because it was hurting their profits. Top that!
You're not the first FReeper to suggest it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2793513/posts#8.