then the corrupt officials wouldn't be able to sell them to drug cartels.
On the other hand they would just buy weapons from other foreign countries and then sell them to the cartels.
It would appear that a large part of the problem is the corruption in the Mexican government, army and police. With the amount of money involved, our own government officials could easily be corrupted.
Our "War on Drugs" has been a miserable failure from day one. It's time to wake up and realize that the only way to decrease the magnitude of the problem we've managed to create by drug prohibition is to legalize drugs such as marijuana and cocaine.
Organized crime grew by leaps and bounds during the prohibition on alcohol.
"The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile and children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent."Reverend Billy Sunday delivered this quotation during a speech at the beginning of prohibition. Many people believed and hoped that prohibition would make the above true. However, as they watched and waited, they realized that nothing was improved, and somehow, things had gotten worse.
The following are statistics detailing how much worse crime got:
* Police funding: INCREASED $11.4 Million
* Arrests for Prohibition Las Violations: INCREASED 102+%
* Arrests for Drunkenness and Disorderly Conduct: INCREASED 41%
* Arrests of Drunken Drivers: INCREASED 81%
* Thefts and Burglaries: INCREASED 9%
* Homicides, Assault, and Battery: INCREASED 13%
* Number of Federal Convicts: INCREASED 561%
* Federal Prison Population: INCREASED 366%
* Total Federal Expenditures on Penal Institutions: INCREASED 1,000%
"Not only did the number of serious crimes increase, but crime became organized. Criminal groups organize around the steady source of income provided by laws against victimless crimes such as consuming alcohol or drugs, gambling and prostitution. In the process of providing goods and services those criminal organizations resort to real crimes in defense of sales territories, brand names, and labor contracts. That is true of extensive crime syndicates (the Mafia) as well as street gangs, a criminal element that first surfaced during prohibition."
http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/organized_crime1_final.html History is important. We always think we can improve society by banning, prohibiting and incarcerating. Time and time again we learn the same lesson. By the time we do, we have created a bigger problem than we ever expected.
There is a possibility that if we don't change our laws drug money will corrupt our own government from the local police force all the way to the top.
We provide firearms to many countries all over the world and we also provide many other weapons of war.
Recently, from 2005-2008, the United States and Russia have dominated the arms market in the
developing world, with both nations either ranking first or second for three out of four years in
the value of arms transfer agreements. From 2005-2008, Russia made nearly $35.1 billion, 22.9%
of all such agreements, expressed in constant 2008 dollars. During this same period, the United
States made $56.3 billion in such agreements, 36.7% of all such agreements. Collectively, the
United States and Russia made 59.6% of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations
($91.4 billion (in constant 2008 dollars) during this four-year period.
In 2008, the United States ranked first in arms transfer agreements with developing nations with
$29.6 billion or 70.1% of these agreements, an extraordinary market share for a single year. Far
behind in second place was Russia with $3.3 billion or 7.8% of such agreements. France was
ranked third with $2.5 billion or 5.9%. In global arms transfer agreements in 2008, the United
States also dominated, ranking first with $37.8 billion in such agreements or 68.4% of all such
agreements. In 2008, the United States ranked first in the value of arms deliveries to developing
nations at $7.4 billion, or 40.9% of all such deliveries. Russia ranked second at $5.2 billion or
28.5% of such deliveries.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R40796.pdf Rather than legalizing some drugs we have had talk of reinstating the "assault weapons" ban to stop the smuggling of semi-auto firearms across the border. Of course, the assault weapons ban was also another example of how banning and prohibiting fails as it accomplished little or nothing and popularized the very weapons it attempted to prohibit. Currently semi-auto "assault weapons" are the most popular selling firearms in the U.S. The drug cartels may smuggle in some semi-auto weapons but what they really want is fully auto rifles and other powerful military weaponry. I suspect that some of the semi-auto weapons that are smuggled into Mexico go into civilian hands for defense against the drug gangs. If I lived in Mexico, I would want a firearm for self defense.
In my opinion we have created a lucrative market for drug smuggling and organized drug gangs in our country. Legalization of many drugs would reduce the profit motive and work far better than our "war on drugs". The tax revenues generated could provide treatment centers for drug addiction and the money saved by law enforcement to stop smuggling of cocaine and marijuana could be used to target what remains of the drug gangs.