The Mexico Problem

[SubGod22]

I'm not sure how many have paid attention to our border issues lately but it's getting pretty bad. The Mexican Gov't is having problems dealing with the Drug Cartels and the violence along the border is growing. Not only that, but the reach of these Drug Lords has reached across the border as they've set up shop in hundreds of US cities. I also recently found out thatPheonix has become the number two city in the world for kidnappings.

If American doesn't start taking the border security more seriously we're all going to be paying for it later. I've lost the links, but there's also news that both President Calderon and Ambassador Garza are pleading for more American support. Thousands are dying along the border from this conflict and it seems that most in our gov't couldn't care less about what's happening and what it could lead to.

[RoyalShock]

I know this won't be a popular suggestion, but perhaps we need to rethink the wisdom of the war on drugs.

Cracking down on the border would help, but the drug problems that are exacerbated by a porous border will still be there.

[SubGod22]

I've thought about that as well RS. If done properly maybe things could be contolled a bit better. Either way, our border security sucks and something needs to be done. The violence down there isn't only effecting Mexicans.

[KC Shox]

This is not a Mexico problem, this is commonplace in that country. This is a U.S. government problem and their failure to do anything is hurting our citizens.

We spend 50 billion a month on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the resources we devote to crack down on the drug trade from south of the border is ridiculous.

We spend that here, we could do some serious damage.

[BenWSU]

Put 100 trillion dollars into enforcing the mexico border & the drug runners will bring it in through the never enforced Canada border.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Put 100 trillion dollars into enforcing the mexico border & the drug runners will bring it in through the never enforced Canada border.

But the way they look at it, that would be a success.

Then they would spend $300 Trillion to enforce Canadian border...and call it a success.

Then we would have to find $500 Trillion to enforce the Florida coast. That would be a success.

Then we would need $700 to redo the mexican border.....

[BostonWu]

Dems won't do it for fear of losing votes.
Reps won't do it for fear of pisssing of big business.

[kcshocker11]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29516551

With U.S. forces fighting two wars abroad, the nation's top military officer made an important visit last week to forestall a third.

He went to Mexico.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the trip to confer with Mexican leaders about the Merida Initiative, a three-year plan signed into law last June to flood the U.S.-Mexican border region with $1.4 billion in U.S. assistance for law-enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training to bolster Mexico’s judicial system.

For many Americans, the threat posed by the cartels became apparent for the first time in late February, when the Justice Department announced the results of Operation Xcellerator, a nationwide sweep by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The operation netted more than 750 arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars, 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.3 million ecstasy pills and more than 160 weapons — nearly all attributed to Mexican-connected operations.

Despite efforts being made, I think Royal is right, until profit is taken out of the trade, the criminals will continue to flourish. At minimum we should legalize pot, tax it and concentrate law enforcement efforts on hard drugs. Tax dollars from pot could pay for this as we as other needs 8)

[martymoose]

You can secure the boarder all you want, but good luck with that, it's 2000 miles long. You're never going to stop Mexicans from crossing the border, pump all the money into it you want. Plus you've got another 3000 miles of coastline that are easy access to the drug cartels, not to mention air.

The problem is just as much ours as it is theirs, close minded American thinking is we can just close the door and that will stop the problems. No, all your billions/trillions of dollars is going to do is keep out the Mexicans who are sneaking across for jobs, the drugs and violence are still going to make their way across. The major issue is the amount of money and weapons leaving the US and heading down to Mexico to support the drug operations. The Mexican government is out funded and out gunned. It probably isn't a popular option, but the best way to fight this would be to work with the Mexican government by sending US forces to Mexico to work with the Mexican army in crushing the drug cartels. I can guarantee it would be a better use of our money than the Iraq war and probably save more American lives.

[RoyalShock]

It probably isn't a popular option, but the best way to fight this would be to work with the Mexican government by sending US forces to Mexico to work with the Mexican army in crushing the drug cartels. I can guarantee it would be a better use of our money than the Iraq war and probably save more American lives.

I mostly agree.

I just think that the US criminalizing behavior where the only legally recognized victim is the perpetrator is self-defeating. Yes, the issue isn't quite that simple, but that is the heart of it.

The "drug war" has resulted in overcrowded prisons, log-jammed local court systems and tons of tax money being funneled to local law enforcement and Washington to fight it.

Think about it. We pay for law enforcement to find the drug-related criminals. Then we pay prosecutors and judges to put them in jail. Then we pay prison guards, food service workers and healthcare providers to keep them alive and healthy until they've paid their debt to . . . themselves?

How long before that same logic is used against the alcohol and cigarette industry? What about the fast food industry? Oh wait, I think NYC has already opened that can of worms.

Decriminalize it and add it to the many "sin" taxes already being levied.

If states want to fight it, that's their perogative (even if it doesn't make sense). But the feds have no business in it.

[KC Shox]

Legalizing maryjane is something I've contemplated as being a good idea, but 'bud' is labeled as a "gateway" drug and often times results in users trying harder stuff like cocaine and meth which leads to a more serious addiction.

We can't legalize these drugs as you'd have methheads on the freakin road high as hell ramming their cars into innocent people. Even if it was legalized, you would still have users who have no job committing crimes to support their habit.

The majority of all violent crime stems from drugs. Think about it, users burglarize a person's home to steal their crap and sell it in order to buy drugs. You have users committing robberies to get money to support their habit or steal from other users. These types of crime often times lead to murders.

The greatest crime deterrent is the certainty of getting caught. If legalized, you would have a lot more people experimenting (namely our young ones) and getting hooked on these addicting drugs. Society would not stand for this.

I agree, we should subsidize the Mexican government and Army with funding and weopans to fight fire with fire.

[ShoxFan963]

Legalizing maryjane is something I've contemplated as being a good idea, but 'bud' is labeled as a "gateway" drug and often times results in users trying harder stuff like cocaine and meth which leads to a more serious addiction.

We can't legalize these drugs as you'd have methheads on the freakin road high as hell ramming their cars into innocent people. Even if it was legalized, you would still have users who have no job committing crimes to support their habit.

The majority of all violent crime stems from drugs. Think about it, users burglarize a person's home to steal their crap and sell it in order to buy drugs. You have users committing robberies to get money to support their habit or steal from other users. These types of crime often times lead to murders.

The greatest crime deterrent is the certainty of getting caught. If legalized, you would have a lot more people experimenting (namely our young ones) and getting hooked on these addicting drugs. Society would not stand for this.

I agree, we should subsidize the Mexican government and Army with funding and weopans to fight fire with fire.

That is how the Netherlands got into trouble by legalizing drugs.

[Maggie]

Even though it no will doubt encounter sharp resistance from some quarters, I agree that the drug laws in this country need to be reexamined simply because the “War on Drugs” is not working and has never worked.

KC Shox is correct to point out that one of the major issues will be the perception that marijuana is a “gateway” drug which inevitably leads to an individual to move on to “harder” drugs like heroin and cocaine. But I am no longer convinced that this argument has much merit. In my judgment that argument is on the order of saying that every rapist began by masturbating. General rules based on individual victims are usually unwise. And although there is a perfectly respectable case against using marijuana, the penalties imposed on those who reject that case, or who give way to weakness of resolution, are very difficult to defend. If all our laws were paradigmatic, imagine what we would do to anyone caught lighting a cigarette, or drinking a beer. Send them all to Guantanamo?

Legal practices should be informed by realities. These are enlightening, in the matter of marijuana. There are approximately hundreds of thousands of marijuana-related arrests made very year. I would wager that most of these involve nothing more than mere possession of small amounts of the drug. However, this exercise costs us, the taxpayer, billions per year in direct expenditures alone. Despite the enforcement of these laws, the impact on the drug “situation” appears to me to be minimal.

I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t know if I approve of legalization (speaking only to marijuana); but the major obstacle to change, is the politician's fear of endorsing any change in existing marijuana laws. And I am not sure that will change. But in the end maybe we should regulate it, control it, tax it, and make it illegal only for minors.

[t7017s]

Even though it no will doubt encounter sharp resistance from some quarters, I agree that the drug laws in this country need to be reexamined simply because the “War on Drugs” is not working and has never worked.

KC Shox is correct to point out that one of the major issues will be the perception that marijuana is a “gateway” drug which inevitably leads to an individual to move on to “harder” drugs like heroin and cocaine. But I am no longer convinced that this argument has much merit. In my judgment that argument is on the order of saying that every rapist began by masturbating. General rules based on individual victims are usually unwise. And although there is a perfectly respectable case against using marijuana, the penalties imposed on those who reject that case, or who give way to weakness of resolution, are very difficult to defend. If all our laws were paradigmatic, imagine what we would do to anyone caught lighting a cigarette, or drinking a beer. Send them all to Guantanamo?

Legal practices should be informed by realities. These are enlightening, in the matter of marijuana. There are approximately hundreds of thousands of marijuana-related arrests made very year. I would wager that most of these involve nothing more than mere possession of small amounts of the drug. However, this exercise costs us, the taxpayer, billions per year in direct expenditures alone. Despite the enforcement of these laws, the impact on the drug “situation” appears to me to be minimal.

I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t know if I approve of legalization (speaking only to marijuana); but the major obstacle to change, is the politician's fear of endorsing any change in existing marijuana laws. And I am not sure that will change. But in the end maybe we should regulate it, control it, tax it, and make it illegal only for minors.

:good:

[SubGod22]

Mexican Drug Lord on Forbes List