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2010-05-03 Caribbean-Latin America

15 More Die in Juarez and Camargo, Tamaulipas

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Posted by badanov 2010-05-03 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 A WaPo review of recent events in Mexico

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-05-03 02:03|| 2010-05-03 02:03|| Front Page Top

#2 Can someone please remind us why the war on drugs - a big government obsession intended to prevent stupid people from abusing themselves - is a good thing? Is Mexico paying the price to maintain a drugs-free USA? Are the people who would take drugs in the US unable to get hold of them?

Prohibition doesn't work. It's a classic - the classic - example of paternalist policy failing catastrophically in the face of reality.

From Anguper's link:

"In Ciudad Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso and is considered the capital of drug violence, gunmen ambushed two police vehicles at a busy intersection last week, killing seven officers and a 17-year-old passerby."

Isn't it time to stop decent people dying in futile attempts to save deadbeats from themselves?

Posted by Bulldog 2010-05-03 03:56|| 2010-05-03 03:56|| Front Page Top

#3 Can someone please remind us why the war on drugs

There is "no war on drugs." Illicit drugs and prostitution are at all levels, staples of the urban economy.

How many times have you heard our president speak openly about a drug problem? Oh, seldom, or never.... well, I guess you may have put your finger on the new reality.

Posted by Besoeker 2010-05-03 05:03|| 2010-05-03 05:03|| Front Page Top

#4 It would certainly be interesting to know how many politicians on both sides of the border get how much money from their drug lords.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-05-03 07:14|| 2010-05-03 07:14|| Front Page Top

#5 Can someone please remind us why the war on drugs - a big government obsession intended to prevent stupid people from abusing themselves - is a good thing?

Let us rephrase the concept. With our prisons bulging and 'catch and release' practiced by liberal judges to maintain humane confinement conditions, why does society continue to enforce standards against murder, robbery, rape etc? Once the facilities are overloaded, just stop the whole process. Obviously, you can't stop the destructive behaviors. How about the principle that a society has both the power and right to set such standards, particularly if you subscribe to the concept that government derives its power from the concept of the governed. You can't stop it, but you can mitigate it. Keep it down to a background noise.

As far as 'stupid people from abusing themselves', they don't just abuse themselves. These are people who could not hold a job to sustain their habits. Daily confrontations of robbery, assault, and resultant death are rewards to the good citizenry at the hands of far too many addicts. Not just for the immediate fix, but years later in the delirium of so many of the 'homeless' that make local news when they take out another father or mother or someone else of promise.

It's gone on too long now. The money and power accumulated by the players is not going to go away with a simple declaration of 'legality'. Just as congresscritters whore for any other business to make sure that those that have get to keep, these interests will just add further fuel on to the fire to maintain their market just as they did in Mexico. If you think politically tolerated union thuggery is unpleasant, you are in for real show when the drug boys move in to protect their part of action in a legalized environment.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-05-03 09:03|| 2010-05-03 09:03|| Front Page Top

#6 Can someone please remind us why the war on drugs - a big government obsession intended to prevent stupid people from abusing themselves - is a good thing?

Self abuse is not the problem. If the damage were limited there, I say go ahead, knock yourself out and commit suicide one hit at a time. It's the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, coworkers, vulnerable strangers that we want to protect. Legalize drugs (esp cocaine and meth) and we will see skyrocketing murder and mayhem of those who are closest to the addict.

The first line of defense against drug addiction is to control the borders. Something neither political party wants to touch. First reduce the supply and addict population, then reducing demand becomes a much easier job. While I am not in favor of jail for possession, I do favor removing them from their environment for detox, education and manual labor. Let them rebuild the parks, cut passes through the Rockies, dig the CA-TX sea level canal.

Posted by ed 2010-05-03 09:27|| 2010-05-03 09:27|| Front Page Top

#7 Mexican violence news roundup

Looks like this is gonna be a recurring feature now. Sad.

And, yes, Bulldog. I'll give it a try as ed and P2K seem to have done as well. The bad guys are not going to limit themselves to selling cocaine, heroin, meth, ecstasy and whatever other substance they can find to just adults. They're gonna sell it to school children who lack the maturity and wisdom to resist the temptation. These children will be far more susceptible to peer pressure and addiction than adults. If you think our society is in decline now just wait until half the population is snorting oxycontin.

But you're right about one thing: The so called War on Drugs in this country is a joke. Our government has never been serious about it. Maybe they're afraid that if they secure the border they'll also stem the flow of illegal aliens and we all know we can't have that, can we? Or maybe there are just too many people of influence in this country who are making too much money peddling drugs to children. If I had my way anybody who tried to step across that border without going through a proper port of entry would be shot and anybody who wants to protest should have their papers checked. I'm sick and tired of these people who try to justify the Mexican invasion of the United States. They want our country. They want to turn it into the same kind of Third World hell hole that Mexico is. I think we should at least put up a fight.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2010-05-03 10:15|| 2010-05-03 10:15|| Front Page Top

#8 Or maybe there are just too many people of influence in this country who are making too much money peddling drugs to children.

I suspect it's that there are too many influential people who don't want their personal recreational supply disrupted.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-05-03 12:03|| 2010-05-03 12:03|| Front Page Top

#9 Controlling the borders is imperative. We need politicians with the political will to do something about the borders. Both parties have been trying to capture the Hispanic vote and have neglected the problem. The result is that most of our major cities have drug gangs connected to the Mexican cartels peddling their poisons to anyone who will buy it.

Another observation, there is a considerable amount of marijuana grown in the U.S. It was and probably still is the number one money crop in Kentucky and Tennessee. Some of it is cartel related some of it good ole boy farming. Not too long ago I came across an article in our local paper where the police found a marijuana growing camp up near Big South Fork. The growers took off but left behind various things like empty food cans and magazines all in Spanish. There is a lot of that going on. Mexicans are stuck out in National Parks and Forests and other wilderness areas and told to grow marijuana.

Meth comes in from Mexico but is also being made in the back of cars traveling down the road--mobile labs. Some of the problem is domestic some cartel-related.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-05-03 13:39|| 2010-05-03 13:39|| Front Page Top

#10 As far as 'stupid people from abusing themselves', they don't just abuse themselves. These are people who could not hold a job to sustain their habits. Daily confrontations of robbery, assault, and resultant death are rewards to the good citizenry at the hands of far too many addicts. Not just for the immediate fix, but years later in the delirium of so many of the 'homeless' that make local news when they take out another father or mother or someone else of promise.

Precisely. Alcoholics can hold down jobs and pay their bills (including rent, utilities, food, etc). Drug addicts cannot, and thus would resort to crime even if the drugs were free.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2010-05-03 16:02|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com 2010-05-03 16:02|| Front Page Top

#11 Alcoholics can hold down jobs and pay their bills

You've got to be kidding me! I've been involved in the termination of two high level people who were sent to farms to dry out, came back sober and within two years had resumed destructive behavior that rendered them unfit for continued employment.

Our drug saturated prisons prove beyond doubt that the problem cannot be solved by an exclusive focus on supply.

And one nation did substantially reduce its drug use. Red China. And they did it by draconian penalties for users. Including the death penalty.

If you aren't ready to reduce demand through draconian measures, you aren't serious about a war on drugs, so legalize them, take out the profits and accept the cost of countless shattered lives.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-05-03 16:44|| 2010-05-03 16:44|| Front Page Top

#12 Bali, Singapore, Malaysia also come to mind as harsh. Capital punishment for drugs.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-05-03 17:31|| 2010-05-03 17:31|| Front Page Top

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