Latin America: Mexican Troops Occupy Ciudad Juárez, US Officials Urge Greater Cooperation in Fight Against Cartels
As of Wednesday, some 1,500 Mexican soldiers had been deployed to Ciudad Juárez, the epicenter of the prohibition-related violence wracking the country. An additional 5,000 troops should join them by the weekend.
Mexican military anti-drug patrol
The security situation in Ciudad Juárez has grown so grave that the mayor and his family have relocated across the border to El Paso after being threatened with decapitation. The city's police chief resigned last week after traffickers threatened to kill a policeman every 48 hours until he did. At first, the police chief stood firm, but resigned after traffickers killed a policeman and a prison guard. At mid-week this week, a bloody riot broke out between rival drug gang factions in a prison on the south edge of the city, leaving some 20 dead.
"Ciudad Juárez worries us deeply," Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in an interview with Reuters. "It is the reason why there is a response by the federal government to support the request of local authorities. Public safety is a shared responsibility among the federal, state governments and municipalities. In areas where drug traffickers have a lot of influence, sadly there is a risk that they will have an interest in influencing the formation of public power, particularly the local authority. This is something that concerns us."
Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón called out the armed forces to go after the country's wealthy, powerful, and violent cartels in December 2006, around 9,000 people have been killed in prohibition-related violence. Thousands have been arrested and tons of drugs seized, but both the illicit drug trade and the violence show no signs of letting up.
That is making US officials increasingly nervous. Congress last year passed a three-year $1.4 billion anti-drug assistance package for Mexico and Central America, and Admiral Mike Mullen, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was headed for Mexico late this week to offer further assistance to Calderón.
"Clearly one of the things he expects to talk to his counterparts in Mexico and other officials about is the growing violence and growing threat with regard to narco-trafficking and the drug cartels," Captain John Kirby, spokesman for Mullen, told Agence France-Presse. "We would welcome the opportunity to increase and enhance our military-to-military cooperation," Kirby said. "There's clearly room to do more."
Mullen wasn't the only high US official to express concern about the situation in Mexico this week. "The cartels are retaliating," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told NBC on Sunday. "It clearly is a serious problem."
But Gates added that the crisis has caused Mexico to drop its traditional arm's-length approach to the US military. "I think we are beginning to be in a position to help the Mexicans more than we have in the past," Gates said. "Some of the old biases against cooperation between our militaries and so on, I think, are being satisfied."
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redditFor More Information on the MERP Model for Re-Legalization
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 11:26amThis project is just getting underway. By going to the following link you can view the first video that I have produced on this subject. By all means send this link to everyone throughout the planet. The text version allows it to be read in over 40 different languages. If there is a better solution to the problem please send me a link, as I would love to analyze any competing models for Re-Legalization. But I am doubtful and truly believe that we all need to get behind the MERP Model. It will minimally keep nearly 27 Billion dollars of Mexican Cartel profits from going to Mexico each year. MERP has the promise of keeping this money in the US economy, stimulating jobs and raising tax revenue without imposing any tax on Marijuana itself.
Does this not make sense to you, Dave Borden?
Re-Legalize Marijuana Now, Obama (1)
http://www.newagecitizen.com/MERP/RelegalizeNowObama01.htm
The Solution is Simple: Re-Legalize Marijuana under MERP
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 11:19amI'm urging everyone that reads this to send Dave Borden an email and demand that he fully support the MERP Model in order to end Marijuana Prohibition.
drcnet@drcnet.org
I believe the real reason for the "military solution" in Mexico is to establish the North American Union by integrating US and Mexico military to supposedly stop the drug driven violence on the Mexican/American border. Yet by just Re-Legalizing Marijuana NONE OF THIS WOULD BE NECESSARY!
If Mr. Borden does not give support to MERP you really have to scratch your head and as "Why?"
Below you can read a rough transcript for the second video in my series "Re-Legalize Marijuana Now, Obama." "Yes We Can" have Legal Marijuana in 2009 if we just get behind the implementation of the MERP Model.
Re-Legalize Marijuana Now, Obama (2)
=============================
Let me be absolutely clear why I am producing this series of videos. The primary purpose of this series of videos is to provide a global strategy to Re-Legalize Marijuana Worldwide in 2009. In this second video I will be giving a thorough overview of the only true solution to ending the War on Marijuana: the MERP Model.
Since the first part of this series premiered on February 2nd, 2009 it has been viewed by over 2,000 people in over 20 different countries. For those that can’t read English I provide transcripts of each video, which can be viewed in any of 40 languages.
I encourage you to distribute this link throughout the planet so that we can win our first battle against the Globalists, by implementing the MERP Model of Marijuana Re-Legalization Worldwide before 2009 ends. It already appears that this is going viral across the internet and the support for the MERP Model has been overwhelming.
In the first video I made it clear that neither Obama nor Congress have any intention to Re-Legalize Marijuana without a concerted strategy. I then recommended 5 steps that groups and individuals could take to begin pressuring our representatives to specifically implement the MERP Model of Re-Legalization.
In this video I will give an overview of the MERP Model
What is the MERP Model?
MERP is really a one syllable contraction of the acronym MRPP which is short for the “Marijuana Re-Legalization Policy Project.” For brevity I will be using MERP from this point forward.
The MERP Model for Marijuana Re-Legalization is elegant in its simplicity and can be succinctly described as follows:
“The MERP model of Marijuana Re-Legalization would minimally allow non-commercial cultivation of up to 100 plants, by adults above the age of 18, without any form of government taxation, regulation or other interference.”
The MERP Model is really not significantly different than the way we allow US citizens to produce beer and wine within our homes. Home beer and wine production is neither taxed nor is it regulated. And many activists need to be weaned from this false notion that the government should get to tax everything. If they don’t tax your tomatoes or your beer, why should they be allowed to tax your Cannabis?
But the MERP Model does not preclude the issuance of licenses for commercial sale. Here is how it would work.
In the United States an ounce of high quality Marijuana sells for between 300 to 500 dollars due to the risk that the growers and distributors take to bring it to market. This is due to the fact that it is illegal. But it only costs about 20 dollars per ounce to actually grow an ounce of Marijuana using hydroponics and high intensity discharge lamps. It’s basically free if you grow outside. So if you could buy commercially grown Marijuana for 100 dollars per ounce many people would not bother to grow it. But if the price of commercially grown Marijuana was over 200 dollars per ounce most people would probably decide to grow their own. By protecting the citizens inalienable right to cultivate, without taxation or regulation, the MERP Model effectively “self regulates” the market.
None of the moneyed organizations, such as MPP or DPA, currently support the MERP Model as they tend to favor models that “tax and regulate” Marijuana much like we tax and regulate “hard liquor.” And just like “hard liquor” there would be a very good chance that they would not allow you to grow your own. And if you were able to grow your own the government would probably insist on charging you a hefty annual license fee to allow you such a privilege.
It should be emphasized that the MERP Model has intrinsic advantages over all the “tax and regulate” models that are promoted by these “moneyed” organizations. For it is only by completely taking the profit out of Marijuana that we can effectively defund both drug gangs and the Mexican Drug Cartels that have now infiltrated 230 major cities throughout the United States according to the Justice Department.
The MERP Model would also stimulate United States economy even if everyone decided to grow their own.
According to a recent “60 Minutes” show, (Mexico: The War Next Door), “drug trafficking brings in as much as $38 billion a year from the US” which ends up in Mexico. In a recent CNN interview Attorney General Terry Goddard stated that 60 to 70% of the Mexican Drug Cartel profits are derived from Marijuana sales. But incredibly both he, and Anderson Cooper, is against the Re-Legalization of Marijuana.
But let’s take a moment to do the math.
If 70 percent of the $38 Billion, in Mexican Drug Cartel profits, originate from Marijuana then we are talking about $26.6 billion a year. So by implementing the MERP Model we could keep nearly $266 Billion dollars in the United States economy over the next 10 years. That is a lot of money. And that is exactly what the MERP Model would accomplish.
The MERP Model also serves as a “Gatekeeper” drug. This is because consumers would no longer need to go to local dealers that often sell harder drugs such as Meth Amphetamine, Heroin and Cocaine. This would lower the demand for Heroin whose main source is now in Afghanistan, where Islamic Terrorists use the profits to wage war against the non-Muslim world. So it is also quite possible the MERP Model would help to defund Islamic Terrorism throughout the planet. And since heroin is often injected through dirty syringes one would also expect a reduction in new HIV/AIDs infections.
Of course there would be many other additional benefits that I don’t have time to discuss at this time.
So what is it going to take to Legalize Marijuana under the MERP Model?
There are really two main things that need to be done in order to implement the MERP Model in the United States:
(1) Take Marijuana completely off of the Federal Controlled Substances Act (1970)
(2) Withdraw from all United Nation Drug Treaties or minimally refuse to recognize any constraints concerning the cultivation, taxation and consumption of Marijuana.
Other countries can take similar steps. For instance Great Britain has a “Controlled Substances Act” almost identical to ours. The only difference is we have classes 1-5 and they have classes A-E. But the idea is the same: get rid of all legal restraints against the cultivation, taxation and consumption of Marijuana.
If the US Congress can rob us blind in a week, through the passage of the TARP stimulus plan on October 3rd, 2008, then they should easily be able to implement the MERP Model in a matter of days. And if the Global Elite can continue to bail out the banksters, that have literally destroyed the global economy, then they can give up the corrupt stream of Narco dollars that are currently propping up their international banks. In a recent UN Report it was disclosed that the only thing keeping the international banks solvent has been the laundering and investment of illicit drug money.
The Global Emperors, that have promulgated 71 years of Marijuana prohibition, have been exposed as both criminals and liars. And the people of this planet are waking up. The War on Marijuana must be brought to a quick and decisive end through the full global implementation of the MERP Model.
This ends my brief discussion of the MERP Model and how it would work in the real world. If you favor the MERP Model I highly encourage you to visit the following link often to see how things are developing and to get involved. Above all else call your representatives weekly and tell them that if the MERP Model is not passed by next November’s election you are going to vote for someone else. Let the pressure build.