The President of Mexico has an unfortunate message for Americans still ignorant of the Drug War’s cold realities: Some of your politicians are involved.
Yes folks, it is long-past time to start thinking about alternative strategies for combating both the harmful effects of drug addiction and the deadly effects of forcing an economy outside of the law.
“It is impossible to pass tons of drugs and cocaine to U.S. without some great complicity of some American authorities,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderone.
“There is traffic in Mexico because there is corruption in Mexico. And that is true. But with the same argument, if there is traffic in United States, it is because there is some corruption in United States.”
Nah!!! Say it ain’t so!!!
Cheney is now a private citizen and no longer a politician. Stoopid Mexicans.
Simple to figure out who. Just look to those who are opposed to fencing and putting troops on the border to stop illegal traffic heading North. You’ll have your roster…
It’s a business, we should TAX IT!
This is news?
@Paddy-O: Also look at those opposed to legalization, they are candidates for that list.
This is atrocious. How dare he?
The United States is “fighting” this drug war; unlike our cowardly southern neighbors. Our men and women are the best in the world.
It would be unthinkable anyone here would work with the criminals and terrorists. If anything; Calderon must be working with the cartels by letting them operate with impunity within his territory.
# 5 kap said, “@Paddy-O: Also look at those opposed to legalization, they are candidates for that list.”
Not really. Many who oppose do so because they think (right or wrong) that it would increase drug use. Those who oppose measures to lessen the drug flow definitely are candidates…
Calderone has done some plastic surgery since the last time we saw him.
FTA: “It is impossible to pass tons of drugs and cocaine to U.S. without some great complicity of some American authorities,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderone.
Hmmm. I’m inclined to agree with this assessment, but he’s still just guessing here. Yes, it’s likely, but before making accusations, he should do his homework and be prepared to name names.
This just makes him look weak. If he really wants to fix the problem, he should do everything he can to find the culprits and call them out. You know the press could not resist following so juicy a lead, digging up facts and asking tough questions. It would be the quickest and surest way of ending the corruption he’s complaining about.
The bush dynasty came to power selling opium-clinton was financed selling cocain-the government ships it in..gets the kids hooked..then locks them up.
its called the (hegelian dialect)
Also google (american drug wars) by kevin booth..good flick.
# 6 Santa Maria
In this world we have “good people” and “bad people” and we also have people like you…“naïve people”. You can’t possibly think that we don’t have any corruption here the US. Unfortunately money is very powerful and can make good people do bad things.
#10 kjackman
I was thinking the same thing. It’s easy for Calderone to accuse the US of complicity, thereby moving the spotlight off his own immensely corrupt government.
It’s not so easy to name names. So to have any credibility, he needs to have at least ONE name of someone in the US government who is dirty.
One, only one, is all he needs. That should be easy enough to get. Does he have even that?
I think the church should find some Cartels as potential donors.
Say it isn’t so!
#13 – Ah_Yea – It’s not so easy to name names.
It’s not too many politicians who would put “Took money from the drug cartels.” on their CVs.
All politicians are corrupt. Its the nature of it. To what degree is open to debate. That said, I wouldn’t be too surprised if this is true.
Watch The Godfather it is the way the drug business works.When you control the Pols and the judges you control the drug business.The current “war”is about who controls the border police both Mexican and American.
Kinda’ the pot calling the kettle black…
Shocked and appalled.
We the people are the consumers of the drugs sold to provide the money to fuel the drug wars.
Somebody is on the take. To much money and most humans are weak.
The cartels want drugs to be illegal but the drug laws to be poorly enforced.
We do need to be checking for guns moving south.
You might make grass legal but most of the rest is bad, bad news. Drug abuse is a social disease passed from one person to another. On a bad day I’d almost go for giving everybody a blood test and if you fail you get shot in the head.
The Japanese once stopped the opium trade that way. The killed the users and the dealers.
I would not trust the president of mexico let alone my local politician. Why else go around pointing fingers unless your the one you should be pointing at
Well, if I were to hypothesize, I would say that the most potent drug running route would be through Texas and Arkansas, and from that central location out to the rest of the US. We can assume that there would be a significant intelligence aspect to this drug running, given what we learned about CIA drug running for the right wing groups in S. America during the 80’s, and of course the recent crash of a CIA plane carrying coke on Mexican soil. We can also assume that any politicians benefiting from this movement of drugs would have large pools of unregulated cash available to them. This money pot would give them a great advantage in any attempt to achieve high office.
So, by asking who has come from the Texas/Arkansas establishment and achieved high office in the last 30 years, you can ascertain what people are most likely to have established this corridor of smuggling through those states and created the network to benefit from it. So, the report may not give out specific names, but it’s only a minor act of deduction to figure out who they are referring to.
#2 You have too great an estimation of the abilities of armed men to interdict things that are in demand. If simply stationing armed guards on the border would stop drug trafficking, then why are there drugs in prisons, which have armed guards, barbed wire, high walls, search lights, and intense surveillance? No, that plan would be a first class way to introduce drug money corruption into our Army too, which would be just great for morale, I’m sure.
#22 “On a bad day I’d almost go for giving everybody a blood test and if you fail you get shot in the head.”
My God, on what basis? That a drug is lethal? Well, Asprin is more lethal than, for instance, Marijuana, would you propose shooting Asprin users in the head? On the basis that a drug is illegal? Isn’t that just as arbitrary; I mean, one day you take ephedrine, and it’s legal, and the next day it is not. Crimes warranting the death penalty should not be so subject to cavalier changes, I should think.
Is there any basis of justice in your ‘feeling’ or is it all an authoritarian impulse that people should simply do what they are told and shut the hell up? BTW, I’d say that the old Japanese or modern Singaporean experiment in drug eradication were successful, except they keep having to execute people, which sort of exposes the impossible lie that they actually ever managed to stop the drug trade. The law of supply and demand is inexorable, and as long as there is demand (and the demand has existed throughout human history), there will -always- be supply. Defying that, despite every failure that has come from that defiance over the past 100 years or so, is like spending decades patiently flapping your arms based on the conviction that you might someday fly.
Capitalism… it’s a beautiful thing. 🙂 Demands always find a supplier.
Pot is far less harmful than alcohol. (Insert joke about crazed and violent drunk vs spaced out pothead here.) It should be legalized and taxed, just like booze. And probably its consumption should be limited to private homes, because second-hand smoke would have much more serious implications than tobacco.
Once the smoke clears there (heh, so to speak) we can take a look at the harder drugs.
Yeah, we wouldn’t want them getting cured of cancer second hand.
http://tinyurl.com/d3vapf
Nor would we want their driving to be improved by the exposure.
http://tinyurl.com/dzkj3x
lol
Those with their backs to the wall always find it easier to just cast aspersions than it is to actually do something constructive. Right wing nuts are one example. Cow-Patty, Alphie, and Tech_1 are other examples.
From the article:
The active chemical in marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells by essentially helping them feed upon themselves, researchers in Spain report.
Whoa… marijuana gives brain cancer cells the munchies and they eat themselves… pretty good. 🙂 Interesting article!
#28 Good question Eric… an old friend of mine has a brother who’s a state cop, and they *love* the drug war… full employment for cops, he says. They know it’s bullsh*t, but it keeps them employed. 🙁
Yeah, the truth hurts pedro. But you’ll get over it.
Drugs are neither good nor bad, people are.