Mexican Pres, "NO MORE WEAPONS!"

[tarakian]

It makes no sense from either a logistics or financial sense for any drug cartel to get automatic weapons through private owners in the USA.

Why would the ACME drug cartel go to the trouble of recruiting thousands of US citizens (and it would need to be this many as they can't buy in bulk) to straw purchase automatic weapons at retail (which isn't cheap), fill out all the paper work, pay for the tax stamp, wait a few months for the sale to clear, then smuggle them into Mexico? It's much easier to call up their criminal buddy, Jorge Mustafah Mohamed Shamma Lamma Dingdong and say "Hey, I need 1,000 AK-47s, 3 dozen shoulder fired rockets, and a couple hundred thousands rounds of ammo. Have it delivered to my summer house. Let's say $500 a piece for the hardware, 10 cents a round for the bullets. I'll have a bag of cash waiting. We should get drinks sometime. Thanks buddy."

It's pure fiction.

 

[mdauben]

We were ARMING the cartels.

As another poster pointed out, F&F was a drop in the bucket compared to the hemoraging of men and weapons from the Mexican military. The idea that cutting of whatever minimal number of arms that are trickling across the border from the US will have any impact at all on the drug cartels is fantasy.

And the "War On Drugs" is what created the cartels in the first place.

And the corruption and incompetance of the Mexican government is what allows them to openly flourish.

I won't argue that the "War on Drugs" has done more harm than good (just like Prohibition did in the 1920s) in both Mexico and here in the US. All such draconian actions do is creat profits for organized crime. We are never going to legislate drugs or alcohol away. The best thing would be to legalize and regulate drugs but I just don't see that happening any time in the near future.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

If drugs are legalized are you ready to possibly lose some family members? Drugs are already destroying many otherwise productive people. If they could buy their heroin over the counter at Walmart it would be hard to get through the door due to the junkies and dead bodies scattered about. I once knew a guy who suggested we create compounds where drug users could go and consume the drugs seized by customs and the DEA. That way two problems would be eliminated at once but the price in humanity would be high for a while until the natural law of Darwin completed its course......

 

[jerkface11]

If drugs are legalized are you ready to possibly lose some family members?

LOL do you really think that people don't do drugs right now because they aren't legal????

 

[baylorattorney]

That's all one big joke and game played by top level politicians. A big lie on both sides.


Waste not want not.

 

[Panzercat]

Because the US is the only drug market in the world, amirite?

I take issue with the fact that millions of innocent mexicans are dying because of the US drug habit; or at least the 'evil america' connotation half of these responses contain. Certainly we're the most convenient market, but hardly the only one to export to. If it wasn't us it would be somewhere else because greed and apathy are a weakness in all men and people would still die as organizations fought over this market regardless of where the end product was delivered.

Now you can absolutely question the methods by which the war on drugs has been executed but I have to note that you're only seeing the hottest front televised. Because Mexico is the only drug problem nation we have a hand in? Like all wars, the media will only focus on the fighting and/or failure, not where the US has gained an upper hand. I'm not saying I'm right or you have to accept this explanation, but if the Gulf War has taught you anything, it should be that you're never getting the whole story from the talking heads, let alone the successes.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

jerkface: There are certainly plenty of people using drugs but if accessing them is made easier the lack of self-discipline will result in a huge spike in overdosage deaths. I guess you didn't understand that point. I have dealt with drug usage by a son and it is not an enjoyable time. Drug use is NOT a victimless crime as the recreational users and useful idiots always preach. The cost in relationships, human life, and quality of life for those around the user are severe. I pray you do not have to experience it.

 

[parsimonious_instead]

My advice to Mexico: start keeping better track of who has the keys to police arsenals and evidence rooms.

 

[mdauben]

If drugs are legalized are you ready to possibly lose some family members?

People who are going to destroy their lives with drugs are already doing so. Legalizing drugs isn't going to change that, its already too easy for people who want them to get hold of drugs. I feel compassion for anyone who has lost a friend or family member to drugs, but the current laws and government policies just result in more destroyed lives, not fewer.

 

[jon_in_wv]

Pretty convenient when he can blame all his countries woes on us. Never mind all the corruption his his own government.

 

[jon_in_wv]

People who are going to destroy their lives with drugs are already doing so. Legalizing drugs isn't going to change that, its already too easy for people who want them to get hold of drugs.

When I was in high school getting alcohol to party on the weekend was hard. You had to convince someone who could legally buy it to get it for you or you had to find someone who would risk his license to sell to a minor. Getting ANY illicit drug was easy. The illegal channels were already there. I would wager that if it was legal it would be harder, not easier for younger people to get.

 

[Chedderbob]

Jon_in_wv, there have been numerous studies that prove what you have just said. Black markets are efficient at getting illegal products to users (kinda their job ya know) government entities are extremely inefficient at stopping free enterprise (communism?). I would be willing to bet that very few members on this board know where to purchase a full-auto AK under the table (it's legal and regulated.) but I'd bet you nearly every one of us can rattle off about 5 people that we can buy marijuana off of (illegal, and governed by a black market).

Steel Horse Rider, we understand that you have had a bad experience with drugs. Watching your son deteriorate must be horrible. But understand that there are also people who have had their sons shot with a handgun, should we make those illegal too?

 

[jerkface11]

jerkface: There are certainly plenty of people using drugs but if accessing them is made easier the lack of self-discipline will result in a huge spike in overdosage deaths. I guess you didn't understand that point. I have dealt with drug usage by a son and it is not an enjoyable time. Drug use is NOT a victimless crime as the recreational users and useful idiots always preach. The cost in relationships, human life, and quality of life for those around the user are severe. I pray you do not have to experience it.

Yup we totally need the government to us protect from ourselves.

 

[jerkface11]

I take issue with the fact that millions of innocent mexicans are dying because of the US drug habit

They aren't dying because we are using the drugs. They are dying because since the drugs are illegal only criminals can produce and traffic them. If Pfizer was making cocaine they wouldn't be murdering people in the process.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I guess we shouldn't have any traffic laws then.....

 

[jon_in_wv]

Oh I would love to hear you explain how that analogy applies this discussion in ANY WAY.

 

[jerkface11]

I guess we shouldn't have any traffic laws then.....

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/200...uce-congestion-by-eliminating-traffic-lights/

 

[armoredman]

Mexican citizens are dying because Mexico has a weak and completely corrupted central government, allowing gang rule in the "states". If it was nothing but availability of illegal drugs and guns, then American cities would have body counts far higher than the Mexican ones. How many Mexican citizens have died in the last year due to the so-called Army crack down on drug lords?
Sorry, the only drug dealers I know are in prison. I do not now, nor have I ever used an illegal drug. I have seen the results of drug use, and it isn't pretty.

 

[Sniderman]

Of course the arms come from America

Our government has been sending huge supplies of military weapons to South America at least since Nixons implementation of the "War on Drugs". Now, two generations later, these arms are still out there, long after the several "Causes" they supported are gone, This US government supplied hardware still exists as a vast, valuable, unregulated & unaccounted for commodity.
And the American public is expected to, (and, sadly, many will) believe that the narco terrorists are being armed by little, privately owned gun shops in the American border states.
I find it difficult to even discuss The cross-border drug problems unless the greed and corruption on both sides of the river is put into the forefront of the debate.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I guess we should also do away with precriptions for drugs and other narcotics. There certainly isn't a black market for oxycontin and other pain killers so you must be right.

 

[Sam Cade]

jerkface: There are certainly plenty of people using drugs but if accessing them is made easier the lack of self-discipline will result in a huge spike in overdosage deaths.

In 2001 Portugal decriminalized drug use. All drug use.

The net result?

Success!!

Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html#ixzz1mkpHuwRx

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

 

[macadore]

Ever since I can remember the Mexican government has been scapegoating the U.S. to cover it's incompetence and corruption. This is just the latest chapter.

 

[AABEN]

If Obama had any balls he would say NO more drugs. But he has NO balls!

 

[Mike1234567]

Legalized Drugs: Unimpassioned logic cannot be forced... it must be allowed through an open mind.

 

[Certaindeaf]

.I won't argue that the "War on Drugs" has done more harm than good (just like Prohibition did in the 1920s) in both Mexico and here in the US. All such draconian actions do is creat profits for organized crime. We are never going to legislate drugs or alcohol away. The best thing would be to legalize and regulate drugs but I just don't see that happening any time in the near future.

Agreed.
Perhaps we should legalize them but do drug testing if you're on the dole, employed in just about any capacity etc.