Chicago Tribune: Unconventional cure for Mexico’s drug violence

[marmar]

A unconventional cure for Mexico’s drug violence
Legalization of marijuana is the cartels’ worst nightmare

Steve Chapman
March 28, 2010


When someone next door is coping with trouble, the neighborly thing to do is help. Mexico has a growing problem with extreme violence. And many people in California have a good idea of how to help.

Mexico has been wracked by murders connected to the drug trade. Last year, it suffered more than 6,500 drug-related killings, triple the number in 2007. And 2010 looks worse. As of mid-March, more than 2,000 people have died in drug-related homicides – which puts Mexico on pace for more than 10,000 such deaths this year. That's more than one every hour.

This is not an epidemic of crazed meth addicts slaughtering people at random. It's the byproduct of a war involving narcotics traffickers, who sometimes kill each other, sometimes kill police and soldiers, sometimes kill journalists who report their crimes and sometimes kill innocent bystanders.

So what can the Golden State offer in the way of assistance? Something potentially valuable. In November, Californians will vote on a ballot initiative that would make it legal not only to use marijuana but to grow and sell it.

You may think this would help only by allowing Mexicans to flee northward and escape their troubles in a stoner fog. But it would do more. Mexico is the biggest supplier of cannabis to the United States. Control of that market is one of the things that Mexican drug cartels are willing to kill for. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-oped-0328-chapman-md-20100328,0,7446889.column

[RKP5637]

1. It would be a step in the direction of a smart solution to the drug problem. All

America has done with the current solution is to create huge profitable black markets, crime and endless violence.

[panader0]

2. Agree

Also, the US government should buy the Afghan opium crop. The opium could be used for medicines, and the Taliban would lose a major source of money.

[Enthusiast]

14. That's not a bad idea.

The country would probably be money ahead.

[Xipe Totec]

3. What destroyed the Gangsters in America was not Eliot Ness, but the repeal of prohibition nt

[Warpy]

4. Home grown in California would sure put a dent in their market

but the drug war needs to end, period, with all psychoactive substances available to adults from behind a counter, no questions asked.

Only by undercutting the black market can we take the massive profit out of it for the drug gangs here and abroad.

The added benefit would be to decrease availability to kids. Oh, they'd still get it, but they'd have to work a hell of a lot harder to get it than they do now, with the black market pipeline wide open.

With billions not being wasted on paramilitaries interfering with countries all over the world, maybe we could concentrate on building rehab centers for the few people who do run into trouble with drugs instead of throwing them into prison when they get caught doing street crime or are in possession of the drugs, themselves.

The drug war has been a dismal failure no matter how you look at it, giving us more drugs at higher profits with more criminals and a shamefully large prison population. A nanny state trying to ban voluntary human behavior that doesn't affect other people is a fascist state that will keep using it as an excuse to keep chipping away at civil liberties.

End it. Now please.

[Feron]

9. Exactly.

Nobody buys moonshine from some shady guy on the street because there are plenty of locations where one can buy it legally. Plus you know that while the cheap stuff is kin to gasoline, it won't kill you.

I'd also much rather people have access to things like opium rather than partake of something that has been cut with various hazardous substances. Even an addict doesn't deserve to be poisoned and poisons won't stop an addict.

Of course law enforcement won't like legalization because drug laws give them cover to steal legally from citizens.

[walldude]

5. LMAO.. unconventional my ass!!

Since when did common sense become unconventional?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. So let's give them their worst nightmare.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. We are way overdue to stop this senseless, useless and expensive war on drugs.

K&R

[RKP5637]

7. We've been practically a police state with this ridiculous war on drugs since

Reagan, Gingrich and his moral majority declared war on drugs, well, and also war on citizens. I guess in RW America's view it has really worked well, like most of their failures that have taken their toll on this country.

[Electric Monk]

8. Humboldt County worries about life after legal pot - AP

(AP) – 4 days ago

EUREKA, Calif. — Marijuana growing has long been a way of life in Humboldt County, especially in recent years as timber and fishing jobs have disappeared along California's North Coast.

Now some residents worry that their way of life is being threatened — not by law enforcement, but by efforts to legalize marijuana in the state.

Community members are gathering Tuesday night to consider the consequences. They worry about the ripple effect that a drop in marijuana prices could have on the county as a whole if legalization undermines the black market.

-snip-

Meeting organizer Anna Hamilton of Shelter Cove said she believes legalization could be "devastating" to the region and that Humboldt County should plan ahead by capitalizing on its name recognition as a marijuana destination.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMqcgW7kl-JhAG7ULtauWrlEtqngD9EK26BO1


Legalize it.

[sarcasmo]

10. Bingo, spot on. legalize NOW!

[spanone]

11. no shit sherlock

[wildbilln864]

12. k&r! nt

[Electric Monk]

13. kick