Drug War Protestors Block Traffic Along Mexican Border
Sandwiched between violent cartels and a brutal military occupation force, the Mexican people are understandably running out of patience:
As one might expect, the Mexican government has been quick to dismiss the protestors, even going so far as to accuse them of collaborating with the drug traffickers:
Unbelievable. I guess the idea that the citizens of Mexico would complain about human rights violations by their own military is so inconceivable that it simply must be the drug lords who made them do it.
Ultimately, it should prove difficult for the government to continue portraying public opposition as a PR experiment sponsored the traffickers. Trivializing public sentiment is a losing proposition in the long term, especially when you’re thoroughly unprepared to address the conditions that are pissing everyone off.
If anyone is serving the political and financial interests of the drug traffickers it is the U.S. and Mexican government officials who continue to champion the failed drug strategy that is ripping Mexico apart before our eyes.
We tend to view the U.S. and Mexican governments as well as the cartels as the primary actors in shaping the discussion of the nation’s drug war, but the Mexican people themselves will likely begin to play a more visible role as the situation further deteriorates. Rampant civil rights abuses by the Mexican military are quickly becoming regarded as a cure worse than the disease and it may only be a matter of time before public sentiments tip in favor of a dramatic change of course.
Hundreds of people in Mexico have blocked key crossings into the US in protests against the deployment of the army fighting drug traffickers.
Traffic was brought to a halt on a number of bridges in several border towns in northern Mexico.
The protesters accused the army of abuse against civilians. [BBC]
As one might expect, the Mexican government has been quick to dismiss the protestors, even going so far as to accuse them of collaborating with the drug traffickers:
…the governor of one state - Nuevo Leon - said he believed the Gulf drugs cartel and its armed wing, the Zetas, were behind the border protests.
"There are reasons to believe it has to do with the Gulf cartel and the group known as the Zetas," Governor Natividad Gonzalez said.
Unbelievable. I guess the idea that the citizens of Mexico would complain about human rights violations by their own military is so inconceivable that it simply must be the drug lords who made them do it.
Ultimately, it should prove difficult for the government to continue portraying public opposition as a PR experiment sponsored the traffickers. Trivializing public sentiment is a losing proposition in the long term, especially when you’re thoroughly unprepared to address the conditions that are pissing everyone off.
If anyone is serving the political and financial interests of the drug traffickers it is the U.S. and Mexican government officials who continue to champion the failed drug strategy that is ripping Mexico apart before our eyes.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
Drug trafficking is a crime, help fight against this crime.
For the sake of humanity, people in Mexico should cooperate with the government. The Mexican government officials should take care of human rights while dealing with people. Innocent people should not be abused.
Sally Thomas
If you understood
anything about the business economics of the lawless drug markets you would know that the best way to end the cartels would be to regulate the markets out of their hands.
the cartels of the big business that they are because the prohibition policy gives them the market opportunity.
Supply demand economics. As someone who encourages folks to start an internet business you should have some understanding of supply demand economics. The demand for intoxicant drugs exists. The supply is lawless BECAUSE the drug war prohibition policy mandates that it be lawless.
Only government can regulate the criminal anarchy out of the supply of intoxicant drugs. Supporting the current government policy is supporting the criminal anarchy. I oppose the government policy BECAUSE I oppose the criminal anarchy.
minor correction
"the cartels of the big business that they are because the prohibition policy gives them the market opportunity."
Should be
'The cartels ARE the big business that they are because the prohibition policy gives them the market opportunity.'
For the sake of humanity
For the sake of humanity Mexico's elected government should listen and cooperate with the people.
Legalize marijuana and stop the mexican people from suffering for America's vices.
Amen.
Amen.
Drug war is terrorist insider trading scam.
Like alcohol prohibition; the war against drugs was started and is still operated by bullies/terrorists posing as leaders for stock market insider trading scams and tyrannical absolute power. when serial /mass murdurers,rapists etc. are allowed to make and exempt themselves from every law this what happens. We all end up with plunder,terror,and bullies posing as local,state,federal,global,and private leaders. notice how the war on some drugs operators/promoters poopoo any attempts at actually allowing a constitutional prosperity based sustainable fair trade economy. If the constition were ever really allowed to work ;slavery,genocide,and prohibitions,wars,drug wars etc would never have been allowed,because bullies and terrorists would not be allowed to be in charge of anything ! prohibitionists wall street insider trading scam makes Martha Stewart look very miniscule as insider trading goes. At least Martha Stewart didnt insert armed bullies into leadership roles and attack peoples botanical research as a vehicle to inflate petrochemiceutical stock values to be insider traded on.petrochemiceutical pharmacies which sponsor the war against drugs are about to be destroyed !
They Knew
It has been well known in America since the early 90s that intense drug war enforcement causes a rise in violence.
The War On Gangs
So the question then is: why did the Mexican Government want to see a rise in violence in the country? As noted in the "Gang" link the American Government has chosen a different policy.
Americans must stop the habit
OF addiction...I believe an ad campaign directed toward the habitual addict of illegal drugs, might help to wake the whole of USA citizens to just how dangerous and deadly and how widespread the drug cartels really are to our peaceful way of life and to our citizens.
Perhaps The Pres should spend some of the stimulus money on those ads. Not to mention bring awareness in his newsletters he sends out to all the people who gave him their e mail. He can use his organization skills to help those drug addicts and future addicts, like our young children not yet effected. I get newsletters all the time from Obama. If he is adored so much, then maybe they will listen to Obama. Anything to help our citizens even if some did not vote for him.
The results: The drug cartels and drug lords would have no one or very little to sell their poison to.
Sharon White
Stop the habit??
People have abused mind altering intoxicants for millenia. How do you propose your plan to work? No one has been able to stop it yet. The latest chapter in controlling the masses has been going on almost a hundred years. Yet, drugs are more easily obtainable and, reportedly, more potent than ever. You are living in a pipe dream if you think it can not be stopped. And you are, also, ignoring the failures of the drug war, as well! Those who ignore history, and repeat the failures, of the past, are doomed, to just another failure!
God did not prohibit the use of alcohol among His people. Why do yo think man can enforce prohibition when God knew He could not!
Think out of the box, for a real "change"! Trying to stop drug and alcohol use has never worked. Why keep doing the same thing over and over. Einstein said that type of behavior is insane!
The one aspect i agree with
The one aspect i agree with you on is the fact that i think the best we can do for bettering our drug use situation in this world is through educating drug users directly. However, the way i think we should do it is by providing them with information, counseling, drug classes, and rehab in every place where we legally sell drugs, thus helping to evolve the drug culture itself.
We need to achieve a culture that is concerned with the nuances of drug use. We need a culture that holds as values having objective knowledge of a drug before using it, and having the psychological wisdom to use it in such a way as to minimize harm and maximize benefits, and to have the integrity to abstain if we cannot minimize the harms enough as to be able to function and be relatively happy, and, especially, not harm others. We must also be open to our friends' and families' feedback about our drug use.
We must also evolve the drug culture on the non-user side of the equation. As non-users, we would try to have the psychological wisdom to be able to respect a friend's decisions with their own bodies, to try to understand their drug use as much as we try to understand any other aspect of their lives or behaviors we might not agree with, while at the same time caring enough about them to keep trying to guide them, and at the same time protecting ourselves from any unhealthy relationships (not an easy balance to achieve in any case, but especially difficult with drug use).
Been there, done that, it failed
A lot more died in Mexico last year, killed by the drug cartels, than died in this country from, eve, heroin overdose. It is a mal-informed public that thinks that a weed is the thing that is ruining lives. It's the fact that it is illegal, that is causing the most harm! And since you support keeping weed illegal, you must agree that it is important to keep it out of the hand of orientals and black men (and jazz singers) so they won't try to be with white women! That is what Harry Anslinger said when they passed the law against cannabis in the late 1930's. Are you just another racist? If not,you been duped! We need to start using our own minds, instead of letting, early, twentieth century, teaching show us the way! I would not want my doctor to treat me like the doctors of that era did! That information is eighty years old! I want the new drug information, not the type tainted or manipulated with so much racism and hatred!
People have tried your way for years and it is just a big failure! As a result everybody's kids get drugs easier then they can buy booze! Really? Why keep trying something that continues to be such a dismal failure?! Continuing it the same way just feeds the cartels and the dealers. And guess what!? Dealers don't card! They don't care if your kid is 12 or 13. They will sell them all the drugs they want! Think about the kids!! That is what Pauline Sabin did in 1929 when she made a 180 and supported the repeal of prohibition! She was originally with the WCTL! Underage kids got in the speakeasies, too! They did not card either, way back then!
Continuing the same old thing just supports the ongoing criminal enterprise called drug dealers! The criminals, the cops, and private prison system are the winners. The losers are our school kids. If it is your kid that is caught 'and loses all possible financial aid for college, you might then reconsider how reasonable the pot laws are! It is not just the "dumb" kids that smoke it, you know dude!?
Who are you replying to? I
Who are you replying to? I was the one who wrote the "the one thing i agree with you on" post. I was replying to the one signed Sharon White. I am not her. I want to legalize drugs. I think if drugs were legal, the drug culture would evolve for the better.
I must be confused.
I thought you were continuing the same line of increased counseling as the answer. The thing is, there are plenty of people who are perfectly normal, that use THC. Just like "social drinkers", they don't need any counseling. They are not addicts.
Addictions occur when people let things ruin their lives and are consumed with it and nothing else! And many who use, the other, drugs claim the same situation. I have had no experience with those drugs, but I do know how harmful they can be. I also understand the dangers in using them. No one my age can forget about Len Bias.
When all you talk about is counseling, it looked more like the same of the old stuff. But if you agree that the abuse of the system, through the war on drugs, has caused much more harm to people who use drugs and are not addicts, I could not agree with you more. Sorry, if I misunderstood the post.
p.s. I did not notice once that the legalization of drugs was mentioned in that last post of yours. Maybe that led to the confusion.
Just to explain my idea, I
Just to explain my idea, I think counseling and all that should be provided for the users who ask for it (right at the place where those drugs are sold), but it should not be mandatory. I mean, it should be mandatory for the places that sell to provide the services, but it should be optional for the users to use those services. Here, also, I'm talking only about the really hard stuff that only a small percentage of the population uses (because we can't have it for all drugs because we just don't have the resources. Plus, i kind of think it would be overkill to have an addiction counselor on duty in every single bar or coffeeshop or place where they sell cigarettes). To be more specific, the on duty counselors would only be mandatory in places that sell crack, heroin, or meth.
For not-so-hard-core drugs like alcohol, tobacco, and powder cocaine (and certainly for weed, which is not a hard drug at all), I think just providing information for those who ask for it (pamphlets would be good, but dvds would be better. at least for sale if not for free), as well as providing the connection to a treatment facility for those who ask for it, would be good enough. The places that sell those drugs could also optionally provide counseling (especially the cocaine places, which i think is significantly worse than alcohol and tobacco, and is also the least used of those drugs).
Oh, and for hallucinogens like acid, mushrooms, peyote, salvia, ecstacy, etc, it should also be optional to have a counselor, but we would try to have as many as possible because those drugs can have some serious psychological effects (especially acid). And, of course, I think it should also be mandatory for those places to provide information and connections to treatment services for those who ask, just like with alcohol, tobacco, and weed.
Nothing wrong with that.
I think that NEW heroin use reportedly went down, like 80%, after the Swiss started treating it like a health problem. Where better to have people with a drug problem than in a clinic that can offer them help. And, there would not be any drug dealers on the streets, any more, recruiting new victims. Maybe they could let doctors treat addiction. (a doctor can go to jail for knowingly doing that!) And, also let doctors treat chronic pain without the threat of being imprisoned for "over-prescription" of controlled drugs! It would be such a better world!
MLANG52
EXCELLENT.GRADE A+ GRADE AVERAGE 4.0 IQ 180
good guess
How did you now my IQ?!! Now, I am going to have to get paranoid, again! haha
google "THC Cancer"
google "THC Cancer"
Which result?
There were blogs that wanted to say that it caused lung cancer (AOL cancer blog) and others that had more scientific research that claimed it might be curing brain cancer. The problem, with blogs, is that they can contain information that is not very reliable. The one with all of the scientific studies, I would tend to believe. I found it rather interesting that the real scientific studies were finding that THC actually was looking like an anti-cancer drug.
That is the difference between anecdotal information and real scientific studies. One can be reliable for treatment and advising patients. The other cannot. Be very critical of what you read when you Google!
Legalization is not the only answer...
Let's suppose that all drugs are now legal. The cartels happen to like their rich and powerful lifestyle. What is most notable whenever a cartel house is seized is that in spite of its palatial appearance - there is not even one BOOK in the house. So - take away the drug business from them by making drugs legal....guess what? These cartels are not going to turn into Boy Scouts. They are going to make money ANOTHER way - kidnappings (which they already know quite well), extortion, child pornography or even kidnapping children to use for prostitution rings. They are not going to turn into teachers - many are uneducated except in the use of guns and racqueering.
Focus on harm-reducution in USA; focus on getting addicts into treatment; focus on education the youths about the damage drugs do to a healthy body......but legalization isn't the total solution. The Russian Mafia "dabbles" a bit in drugs, but mostly they use drugs to get young girls from Moldova, Chechniya and poor villages HOOKED on drugs so that they will work as prostitutes. The girls are then SOLD to Yemen, Dubai, Saudi Arabia. So - just because you take away the drugs from Mexico's cartels doesn't mean they won't devise something else to make millions on.
Luis Gonzalez
Legalization is a helpful part of a larger approach
-EVEN IF cartels choose another route to make money, at least they won't make nearly as much money as before. Drugs are sold to millions of people from these cartels, mostly relatively rich North Americans. Also, drugs have a high profit margin being cheap to produce but expensive due to prohibition.
-Due to the lack of funds, the cartels operations would become smaller and easier for us to manage.
-Legalization is only part of the solution. Military action and other government responses to cartel violence would also play a role.
-Taxes from drugs can be used fund efforts in fighting the cartels.
How's it going guys
I share a love-hate relationship with virtual memory because of the way prices are always,and I domean always dropping. I absolutely hate buying SDs for my R4 / R4i at (what seems to be) a cheap price only to see it become 10% cheaper a few months later.
(Posted using PostNext for R4i Nintendo DS.)
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