Sad thing that this is what could push marijuana into legalization in the US. Truly sad. However, how long and how many lives will it take? http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/18/mexico.drug.violence/index.html
for some reason I dont think the US government will care. Theyll blame the drug war on the drugs and make it so drugs are considered worse.
I currently am in a class called "Drugs, Capitalism and the Americas" and we talk about this stuff everyday. The only reason that this is going down is because NAFTA lowered the price of exchange for the major crops such as corn and rice in Latin America. It is bullshit because we put this on them, and there is no real way to fix it right now. The CIA has been proven to be related with bringing in drugs from Latin American Drug Cartels through many different sources (planes, boats, etc). This is a war that is never ending and I see no way in being able to end it. People will make, sell, buy, and use drugs as long as they are a good way to create some sort of economy in Latin America. This is the best source of income for the farmers there, and since they are forced by the government and drug cartels to make the drugs and sell them for a very low price, it will continue to happen. This does not mean legalization will happen in the US. It may seem like the best option, but the government has not legalized it because they cannot figure out how to make money off of it. People would be able to grow their own legally, and not be taxed for it because it is so easy to do. The government could sell their own, and tax it, such as cigarettes, but MJ is much easier to grow than tobacco. It may take lives to legalize it, and I know it is not he way to go, but the war on drugs is a never ending one as long as people are greedy, and it stabilizes the economy of Latin America. By the way, this war on drugs is about hard drugs too, such as cocaine. That is a whole different story.
We must send this article to our legislators and urge them to END THE PROHIBITION!! If our government doesn't take action now the cartels will establish themselves in our country and then the bodies in the streets will not be Mexican bodies in Mexican streets but American bodies in American streets.
They say that the people that want the troops out of their town are backed by the cartels. I wonder how legit that statement is? If I were a Mexican citizen, and knew that violence would pretty much follow wherever the troops were, I'd probably want them to leave too. Talk about the lesser of two evils though...
Didn't you guys notice the problem in Mexico got worse when the U.S. gave them money to "fight" the 'drug problem' down there?
Isn't the point that we are the buyers of their drugs? Marijuana included? There's plenty of weed going North of the border.
Giving money to the Mexican government for anything pretty well insures that at least 50% of it will go to the cartels due to the corruption. Notice how the U.S. is sending very small "care packages" for the drug war such as communications equipment and not so much cash? Last installment that I read about was $400 million.
Actually it has everything to do with marijuana. It's not the marijuana being sold in Mexico that's fueling these cartels, it's the marijuana they sell in the US. They make billions a year from selling marijuana in the US, this money has made them incredibly powerful and they protect their drug incomes by murdering innocent people in order to send the government a message to leave them alone. Although they also sell other drugs, they get up to 70% of their incomes from selling marijuana in the US. The obvious way to bankrupt these cartels and end the killings is to legalize marijuana production and sale in the US. I can't believe you could say " there is no translation to our marijuana prohibition at all". Why do you think they're killing innocent people today?
The problem is our legislators are some of the people backing it, they just don't realize it. When America sends billions of dollars to Latin America to train their soldiers in order to be able to successfully fight the drug cartels, they are just supplying the drug cartels with armed and skilled soldiers. (Look up the Zetas on google/wikipedia). The soldiers get trained by American Tax dollars to help get rid of the drug cartels, but the drug cartels take these soldiers and pay them more than the government does. They get trained, work for the cartels for more money, and are able to fight even the most specialized of soldiers. My professor told me that the Zetas could kill someone in Chicago, from Mexico in under 30 minutes. All they have to do is make a call and the job will be done soon. This is scary because they are infiltrating USA with ease. It is never ending war and will last for generations.
it's an estimate from various sources including the federal government. I've seen some sources estimate it as high as 75%, although recently the drug czar put it closer to 61%: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080222/ai_n24350563
What percentage of U.S. drug use does MJ constitute? Isn't it something like 80%?? Not everyone can be doing heroin, coke and meth to support the cartels. It only makes sense that the most used illicit drug in the U.S. would also be the one that is most profited from by the cartels. If that isn't a ringing endorsement FOR the REPEAL of marijuana prohibition, I don't know what is. Sure, the "drug czar" uses that stat to further demonize MJ to the sheeple out there. To them it says, "Ooh. We better step up the war on weed."