3 MURDERED IN DRUG WARS: DECRIMINALIZE DRUG POSSESSION
Once upon a time the United States Army determined I had a knack for languages so they sent me to the Vietnamese Language School, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The weekend routine for us weary warriors of foreign nouns and verbs was a Saturday night trip to the Mexican border town of Juarez. At that time the most common activity was drinking, drinking, and few other odds and ends that shall go unmentioned. There was little to no violence that we saw beyond the occasional G.I. getting busted for being too “hands-on” with the locals. Sadly, those days of fun and festivity seem to be over. Approximately 18,000 people have been killed by the Mexican drug cartels as the border wars rage. You see El Paso’s maze of highways lead north, south, east and west out of the city into the country proper, a perfect conduit for drug distribution, and is considered a valued prize by the Mexican drug scummers. Over the weekend three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate were shot and killed. Is America really interested in stopping the slaughter, which will only get worse? If so decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, i.e. personal use only. Here is the story from the Guardian U.K.:
Suspected drugs gang hitmen separately ambushed two cars carrying families with ties to the US consulate, killing an American couple and a Mexican man on the border between the two countries.
Three children survived the weekend killings at Ciudad Juarez, although two suffered wounds.
The attacks came amid an increase in violence along Mexico’s border with Texas and drew condemnation from the White House. The US authorised government employees at consulates in northern Mexico to send family members out of the area.
Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, promised a fast investigation to find those responsible.
Authorities suspect members of a gang of hitmen allied with the Juarez drug cartel, according to a statement yesterday from soldiers and federal police overseeing security in Ciudad Juarez.
While blaming the drug gang, police offered no information on a possible motive for the murders.
I agree with Will and Mrs. Bee! Legalize and regulate the sale of drugs and persuade Texas to become part of Mexico!
If Mexico & the US both legalized it all, then sold it out of state run stores like we sell liquor in Virginia, boom, no more business for the cartels. It’s kind of like how prohibition was the direct cause for the rise of criminals like Dillinger et. al. I dunno, but the border problem has become untenable. I still say let Texas secede, see how long it takes for the drug lords to swoop in and take over entirely. I’d give it a month, tops.
Decriminalize drugs? I would take it one step farther and legalize marajuana
I agree with you Oso, at least in part. I think there is a tendency to blame NAFTA for everything unpleasant that happens in Mexico and Canada and I don’t always think that is the appropriate scapegoat, although I am sure it one of several variables that influence such violence.
I’m in no way excusing those sob’s, the cartels are absolute scum. But it’s mainly blowback from Nafta. The old PRI (ruling party for most of the time since the Revolution)was sorta like the Godfather. they kept the drugs down and did what kept them in power. They were against Nafta cause it would hurt their sources of support and income. But their were “Young Turks” in the party who were down for Nafta and Reagan reached out to them. What we hadn’t counted on was, those “young turks” also had drug connections. So when we helped them to rise in the PRI the drugs came with them. We got Nafta, we also got drug connections. with govt acquiesence the Mexicans took over from Columbians and we have the current mess. The cartels ARE the govt, essentially.