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"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's war on the drug trade is futile even if cartel bosses are caught or killed as millions of people are involved in the illicit business, a senior drug chief said in an interview published on Sunday. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02615.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was watching a documentary on the National Geographic Channel, or Discovery Channel last weekend, and the ex-head of Customs Enforcement said about the same thing. That we are fighting a loosing battle.....as it stands now. *sigh*

It's gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better....if it EVER gets better.

Need more convincing?

"The violence raging in Mexico’s drug war is worse now than the terror that enveloped Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s ever was, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told state lawmakers Tuesday."

http://www.texastribune.org/stories/201 ... -colombia/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately that is true. As the leaders fall, others will rise up to take their place.
Too much money in it.

Only two answers:

decriminalize drugs
Seal the borders and ports

Rex B wrote:Unfortunately that is true. As the leaders fall, others will rise up to take their place.
Too much money in it.

Only two answers:

decriminalize drugs
Seal the borders and ports

Good Job, Rex!

You have summed up the border crisis situation very succintly. Unfortunately, the current administration is not going to distance itself from that many voters as sealing the borders would entail.

OTOH, why not decriminalize the drugs along with abortions? Just askin'...

because both would negatively affect the Democrats voter base.

Legalizing currently illegal drugs is the only way.

For many, many years, the tobacco companies have had labels and brands waiting for marijuana to be legalized.

Over 21, lot's of warning labels. People want to kill themselves with drugs, they will.

The Dems may like the tax revenue angle though.

TLE2 wrote:People want to kill themselves with drugs, they will.

Guarantee?

I think they could have nipped it in the bud, or at least prevented a lot of the cross border violence, but the feds decided to harass the local ranchers who were fighting back, instead of spending those law enforcement resources going after the smugglers and gangs the ranchers were fighting.

Rex B wrote:Unfortunately that is true. As the leaders fall, others will rise up to take their place.
Too much money in it.

Only two answers:

decriminalize drugs
Seal the borders and ports

If we don’t gain control of our borders we will be fighting the cartels in the U.S.

Legalizing drugs is not the answer. How many crack or heroin addicts do you know that work to support their addiction? They will steal and/or kill to get what they need unless you want to supply them with drugs with your tax money.

I have said it many times; the U.S. Government could shut the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants down cold using the military if they wanted to.

What will it take for people to wake up and start pushing our elected officials to do so?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/06/me ... latestnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Only two answers:
decriminalize drugs
Seal the borders and ports

WRONG! Add carpet bombing.

"Shoot low boys! They’re riding Shetland Ponies!” - ??

The above quote/book was by the late Lewis Grizzard.

Back on point:

Take the profit out and one problem goes away.

As for the addicts - get a rope!

boomerang wrote:I think they could have nipped it in the bud...

Unintentional pun?

The government has spent a lot of money trying to stamp out illegal drugs, yet the prisons are filled with violent and non-violent drug offenders, and the illegal drugs are still widely available. This recalls a widely-known definition of insanity.

Decriminalizing illegal drugs would deflate much (but not all) of the profit motive and criminal behavior associated with these substances. On the other hand, it would deflate public investments in interdiction and imprisonment, and make a huge dent in asset forfeiture/seizures, so I expect there would be a lot of resistance to the idea coming from that angle (the people whose work and livelihood revolves around seizing narcotraffickers' money, investigating, arresting and jailing them, etc).

The addicts really require some form of rehabilitation to get their lives back together---but rehab ultimately comes down to whether or not they really want to stop their self-destructive behavior, and all too often they do not want to change. Once that self-destructive behavior spills over into committing crimes against others, those addicts are fair game for the consequences associated with such attempted or committed crimes.

VoiceofReason wrote:
I have said it many times; the U.S. Government could shut the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants down cold using the military if they wanted to.

What will it take for people to wake up and start pushing our elected officials to do so?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/06/me ... latestnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My only problem with using hte military is that I don't want the military used like police. If you send in the military, let them do what soldiers do. If you don't want that, don't send them. I don't think our politicians would do it.

Of course, I say that, but that is pretty much what they have been doing in Iraq I guess.

This is a very complicated situation with a lot of elements to it, but I agree that the Mexican cartels cannot be defeated if we go about it the way that we are. The violence in Mexico will subside in the coming years as the cartels finish seizing control of the country. Mexico will become a narco-democracy. I believe that Mexican President Felipe Calderon made the strongest attempt in history to squash the cartels and those efforts failed very badly. Mexico does not have troops adequately trained or experienced to deal with this enemy.

The U.S. is too strong for the Cartels to deal with. I believe that with Mexican cooperation, the U.S. could provide CIA, DEA, and special forces manpower that would cut the head off the Cartel beast, but I also believe that we have many corrupt politicians in this country who profit greatly from the war on drugs and a few who profit directly from the Cartel. I don't believe that Washington cares what happens along the Texas/Mexico border as long as a majority of the violence stays in Mexico, and I honestly believe that many in our government do not want the Cartel crushed.

I believe that politicians with the power to do something just want business as usual meaning that we spend billions fighting the war on drugs, two or three Cartels operate with immunity in Mexico and supply drugs to the U.S. consumers, we play cat and mouse games with bottom rung mules who carry the drugs into our country and make a seizure now and again for the news photo op. There are a lot of dead officers in Juarez since this war started a couple of years ago, but as long as they are Mexican cops, I don't think our leaders could care in the least. Keep the deaths in Mexico and the drugs flowing over here and the U.S. is not going to get involved. A few dead U.S. citizens or officers in a dumpy border town or two is just the cost of doing business.

Just my opinion.

You left out land mines.

Seriously, put the death sentence on anyone caught with a smidgen of pot and see how much longer it's "cool" to smoke it. If you test positive for use in your system, you get 1 appeal (a retest) and then death. Quick, easy, basically flawless. Put a $1000 dollar reward on anyone who snitches someone out leading to a conviction.

That would just about solve the immigration problem, the gun smuggling problem, and finish up the war on drugs all in one neat package. Now I'll be the first to admit that very few people would have the stomach for it, but if they really wanted to win then this would be the way to go. IMHO