Illegals, Drugs, Smuggling rapidly taking control of our Nation's Southwest border.

[catzmeow]

I agree. Legalize pot. It's less dangerous than alcohol.

How about a what if.... what if we criminalize booze and legalize pot?

I'd go for that. But that wouldn't solve anything.

Finally something we agree on. Fine, legalize marijuana. The gangs will still exist, and they'll still be killing each other in our cities. Legalizing pot is not going to impact that issue.

 

[Iriemon]

If the simple but undeniable logic that by eliminating the profit from their activity is not enough to prove my assertion, you need only look at the effect of legalization on the Chicago gangs in the 1920s which fueled their activities by smuggling.

Hmmmm...anyone notice that immediately AFTER legalizing alcohol America just aHAD to create still another prohibition?

What was REALLY driving that?

I personally think one of the motivators was to give all those freaking prohibitionists something to do.

Not the only motivator, but certainly their influence in government (because they ARE government) must have been powerful.

13 year of alcohol prohibition and we realized our mistake.

76 years of hemp prohibition and we're STILL anamored with that stupid immoral anti liberty system of power and control and taxation by creating crime where NONE exists.

Anyone who continues to support the prohition of hemp is a forking tool or a fool.

Wake the hell up.

This insane belief system (which is entirely unsupportable from the facts about hemp, incidently) have allowed an extreme dangerous criminal foreign element to destroy the quality of life in the American SW.

God damned fools!

America is reaping what it has sown, right now.

Base the law on a LIE and CRIMINALS benefit from it.

Politicians, moralists, those with an interest in the the $30-40 billion a year drug law enforcement bureacracy, drug makers, alcohol producers, and drug dealers and smugglers; they have an interest in keeping it illegal.

 

[Wolfmoon]

There's No Way the government is going to legalize drugs or give Amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens. The American people are getting too educated on the damage they both are doing to the United States of America! The government has their hands full they won't even consider legalizing drugs. The Whitehouse Press Sec. released a press statement saying, Obama won't talk about Amnesty this year.

----

In 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment by the Department of Justice identified drug organizations from Mexico as the greatest criminal threat to the United States.
Text of Legislation

 

[Iriemon]

There's No Way the government is going to legalize drugs or give Amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens. The American people are getting too educated on the damage they both are doing to the United States of America! The government has their hands full they won't even consider legalizing drugs. The Whitehouse Press Sec. released a press statement saying, Obama won't talk about Amnesty this year.

----

In 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment by the Department of Justice identified drug organizations from Mexico as the greatest criminal threat to the United States.
Text of Legislation

I agree that political factors reinforces your opinion. Pity.

 

[Wolfmoon]

The government can't even control the borders how will they control legal drugs and the people who use them. Legalizing drugs will only weaken America to hostile take over by rouge nations. Perhaps that's why some do want to legalize drugs.

I don't recall any rouge nations taking over the US the last time a major drug prohibition was repealed.

How will legalizing drugs subject America to takeover by rouge nations, and which rouge nations are going to take us over?

While everyone is high on drugs anyone could push us over with a feather.

 

[Unkotare]

legalize all drugs...put monies from the so called "drug war" into other things...

Like burying all the people who die from drug-related causes? Great plan.

 

[waltky]

Marines join war on drugs in Guatemala...

200 US Marines Join Anti-Drug Effort in Guatemala
August 29, 2012 — A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

The Marines are deployed as part of Operation Martillo, a broader effort started last Jan. 15 to stop drug trafficking along the Central American coast. Focused exclusively on drug dealers in airplanes or boats, the U.S.-led operation involves troops or law enforcement agents from Belize, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain. "This is the first Marine deployment that directly supports countering transnational crime in this area, and it's certainly the largest footprint we've had in that area in quite some time," said Marine Staff Sgt. Earnest Barnes at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.

It was 50 years ago when the U.S. military last sent any significant aid and equipment into Guatemala, establishing a base to support counter-insurgency efforts during a guerrilla uprising. That movement led to 36 years of war that left 200,000 dead, mostly indigent Maya farmers. The U.S. pulled out in 1978. Guatemalan authorities say they signed a treaty allowing the U.S. military to conduct the operations on July 16. Less than a month later an Air Force C-5 transport plane flew into Guatemala City from North Carolina loaded with the Marines and four UH-1 "Huey" helicopters.

After two weeks of setting up camp, establishing computer connections and training at the Guatemalan air base at Retalhuleu, the Marines ran through rehearsal exercises, Barnes said. Last week, their commander "gave us the thumbs up" to begin active operations, he said. This week the Marines have been patrolling waterways and the coastline, looking for fast power boats and self-propelled "narco-submarines" used to smuggle drugs along Central America's Pacific Coast. U.S. officials say the "drug subs" can carry up to 11 tons of illegal cargo up to 5,000 miles.

Col. Erick Escobedo, spokesman for Guatemalan Military Forces and Defense Ministry, said that so far the Marines have brought about the seizure of one small-engine aircraft and a car, but made no arrests. He said he expected the Marines to in Guatemala for about two months. If the Marines find suspected boats, Barnes said, they will contact their Guatemalan counterparts in a special operations unit from the Guatemalan navy that will move in for the bust. Barnes said the Marines will not go along on arrest missions, but they do have the right to defend themselves if fired on.

MORE

See also:

Mexicans raise questions over CIA role in drug war
Fri, Aug 31, 2012 - Mexican politicians demanded answers from their government on Wednesday after reports that two Americans wounded when federal police opened fire on a US embassy car were working for the CIA.

The US and Mexican governments have said little about the victims’ work since last week’s shooting, a silence that has put a spotlight on the growing, but often secretive US role in Mexico’s brutal drug war. The left-wing opposition Democratic Revolution Party said it would summon government officials to a Senate hearing in order to clarify the murky role of the US CIA in Mexico. “We will ask for a hearing with the public security minister, the foreign minister and the navy to find out what CIA agents are doing in Mexico and why they are fighting each other,” Senator Mario Delgo told MVS radio.

Washington works closely with Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s government against drug smuggling under the US$1.6 billion Merida Initiative, providing training for law enforcement officials and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters. After days of feverish speculation here about who the wounded Americans were working for, the New York Times reported Wednesday that the pair were employed by the CIA as part of an anti-drug task force. However, the Mexican daily El Universal, citing a confidential official report, said they were CIA agents who supervise instructors at a navy shooting range. The CIA and Mexican foreign ministry declined to comment. Calderon voiced regret over the incident on Tuesday and pledged an exhaustive investigation.

A US State Department spokesman would only say on Tuesday that the two were US government employees working on “law enforcement cooperation.” The pair were repatriated to the US over the weekend. According to official accounts, the two were driving with a Mexican navy captain to a military training facility south of Mexico City on Friday when federal police shot at their armored US embassy car. Authorities are holding 12 police officers over the shooting as prosecutors mull charges against them.

Unnamed US officials told the Times that there was no evidence so far that the unidentified Americans were targeted because of their affiliation. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, had already raised questions about the CIA’s presence on Tuesday. Analysts say the number of US security officials in Mexico has soared since Calderon launched an anti-drug offensive in 2006. More than 50,000 people have died since Mexican troops were deployed against the cartels. However, Calderon has refused to disclose the number of US law enforcement agents in Mexico. Under Mexican law, foreign agents or soldiers are forbidden from taking part in operations or carrying weapons in the country.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2012/08/31/2003541640