Bump for later.
This “trade” in cocaine into the U.S.A. wouldn’t exist if there did not exist a demand for the product.
How much effort would it take to eliminate the demand here, in the U.S.A., for cocaine? For it is the huge profits from cocaine sales here that is financing the Mexican Cartels’s expansion into other regions in the Western Hemisphere.
One can only suspect politicians in the U.S.A. of having a special interest in seeing this expansion continue rather than eliminating the demand here for cocaine and thus the porous border.
Assuming folks read this entire article before posting, does anybody really believe that relaxing U.S. drug laws would limit the profits to the drug cartels?
They are already employing mafia tactics to maintain control in the “medical
mj” market.
Ya, there are a some home growers not impacted, but that’s always been true.
The current body of drugs laws has created a financial empire controlled by murderous criminals and scheming politicians of several nations.
Like all laws, the shaping of these regulations over the decades since their quasi-racist and progressive inception has been influenced by monied lobbyists.
Were cocaine, opium, and other drugs freely imported by the same enterprises that import spirits, under similar regulations, then governments could collect their excise taxes, and cities could be free of the criminal depredations by those who are presently burdened by multi-hundred dollar per day habits.
Figures in the Stratfor piece suggest that retail prices could be slashed by up to 90% which would reduce the snorters’ and shooters’ outlays to the came level as alcoholics daily rations of $20 to $50.
Or, we can believe what the Ministry of Truth tells us.
Your call, Winston Smith...
And don’t forget the billions Hollywood makes with narco-themed movies... (all the while snorting up a good percentage of the product)
If marijuana is removed from the “war” public resources can be focused on narcotics. When Nixon waged his “War on Drugs” the funding was roughly 75 percent for education/treatment and 25 percent for law enforcement/interdiction. Over the years this ratio has reversed with law enforcement getting the lion's share and the result has been zilch. As controversial as methadone clinics are they remove the addict and his money from the outlaw market and give him the breathing space to build a productive life.
Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico's newly elected president, has reached out to the U.S. for help with the cartels. If he's serious the U.S. could mount the type of high-tech military programs (electronic eavesdropping) that helped diminish the Colombian cartels and restore order in Colombia. An important component in Colombia was the emergence of a large, armed vigilante group that turned the cartels’ own terror tactics against them. It was unpleasant but it worked.
What throws a wrench in any of these ideas is the monetary power of the cartels and their ability to influence U.S. policy through bribery and other forms of corruption.
Never fear, Everyone of our Too Big To Fail Banks in this Country , who by the way are under Direct Control of the Federal Reserve Corporation, Who also is Under Direct Control of US Treasury, ie El Presidente and Congress. Will Still continue to LAUNDER ALL OF THEIR MONEY.