It's a strategy so ingenious, I can't believe no one thought of it before:

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Jamaica is seeking $1 billion in loans and grants to rid the country of “cancerous” drug gangs that have taken over poor neighborhoods on the Caribbean island and hurt economic growth, Finance Minister Audley Shaw said.

Someone should tell the Jamaicans that the U.S. has already tried the whole spend-a-billion-dollars-to-eradicate-drugs idea so many times that it's become a rather unfunny joke, and the only way the drug czar can even get the money anymore is if he pretends it's for something else, like treatment programs.

The last thing Jamaica needs is to owe a billion dollars back to a bunch of international banks for massive drug war that didn't work. Good luck accomplishing anything except an endless series of bloody gunfights that cripple your tourism industry.

If you want a reduction in drug war violence, begin by regulating and taxing the marijuana that's being sold by the handful all over the country. The thing I keep hearing about Jamaican herb is that no one can even finish the $20 bag they bought at the airport when they arrived. You could tax it at 300% and the tourists wouldn’t even notice. Now that's a billion dollar drug strategy.

Why? Because she thinks it will help save the children:

A discussion of legalizing medical marijuana in Illinois is likely fueling an increase in the number of Park Ridge teenagers using the substance, the Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation contends.

Margaret Polovchak, executive director of MCYAF, said increased dialogue about marijuana legislation in the state leads to a greater public perception that the substance is not harmful, resulting in a growing number of users.

It's wrong on so many levels, one scarcely knows where to begin. But I guess we'll start with the fact that teen marijuana use declined for 10 years straight after the national debate over medical marijuana emerged in the mid-90's.

You see, Illinois isn’t the first state where this conversation has taken place. There's actually an abundance of empirical data to consult before spouting off mindless speculation. Here, check out this helpful chart showing how almost every state that legalized medical marijuana experienced a subsequent decline in teen marijuana use.

Now you'll never find me arguing that passing medical marijuana laws makes kids less likely to try it. But the fact that rates of use have fluctuated similarly in states with and without such laws really just massacres the idea that having a public debate about marijuana policy somehow endangers children. If you want to see an endangered child, check out this video of a SWAT team shooting two dogs in front of a 7-year-old during a bust for a small bag of pot.

Anyone who's concerned about children getting mixed messages in the medical marijuana debate should stop lying about medical marijuana. You know it's medicine because the Institute of Medicine said so. You know it's medicine because its main ingredient is approved by the FDA and the manufacturer even marketed it as "legal marijuana." You know it's medicine because seriously ill patients continue to turn to it for relief, even when doing so places them at risk of being raided and imprisoned simply for trying to make their cancer suck a little less.

The effort to protect children from the dangers of drugs is a noble one, but taking medicine away from people who need it is one strategy that shouldn’t even be on the table.

Judge Napolitano's Freedom Watch program continues to impress me. Paul does a great job, and the whole segment provides a good overview of the madness and hypocrisy of Obama's marijuana policy:


The fact that FOX has created a platform for these sorts of discussions is significant. I wouldn't have thought it possible even a couple years ago.