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Mexican marijuana is still plentiful — and cheap
Houston Chronicle ^ | Dec. 24, 2007 | DANE SCHILLER

Posted on 12/24/2007 5:40:35 PM PST by SwinneySwitch

The popular drug's prices have changed little in 25 years

A car, a home, a gallon of milk — most everything costs more now than a generation ago. Except a baggie of Mexican marijuana.

Give or take a few dollars, authorities say, pot grown in Mexico and sold in Houston and other Texas cities still goes for about the same price as 25 years ago: $60 to $80 for an ounce.

In economic terms, marijuana is far cheaper since the decade when a three-bedroom home in upscale West University cost $150,000, a new ride was less than $6,000 and first lady Nancy Reagan urged kids to "Just Say No."

"I guarantee you it is probably cheaper than it was back in the day," said Lt. Gray Smith of the Houston police narcotics division. "Since I've been in the dope business, it has been pretty much the same," he said of prices during 20 years of monitoring sales.

Others agree.

"I don't care if you put 10 Marine divisions along the Mexican border, you are never going to be able to stop the movement of drugs, marijuana, across the border," said Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Administration's former chief of international operations.

The problem is not only that the 2,000-mile-long border is huge, but also that the U.S. depends on people and commerce being able to freely flow in and out of the country.

"If you were to search everything, you'd have lines going back 100 miles," Vigil said.

Although rarely bestowed with the infamy or educational focus of other illegal substances, the dried, greenish-brown plant remains the most-used illicit drug in the United States, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Seizures have climbed

An estimated 97 million Americans age 12 or older have smoked marijuana, according to....

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corruption; marijuana; marines; mexico; usmc; wod
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To: mylife
Have you ever heard someone actually use the term Groovy?

Lots of people have no clue what that word is suppose to mean.Any one here know?

81 posted on 12/25/2007 6:46:14 AM PST by Uncle Meat
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To: BallyBill

Been a long time since a dime bag was a dime.


82 posted on 12/25/2007 6:48:46 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: Larry Lucido
> Been a long time since a dime bag was a dime.

Since a "dime" meant $10, not really... I remember that far back...

83 posted on 12/25/2007 6:55:41 AM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: dayglored

Yep, $10.00 was the going rate in 1970.

Or so I was told.


84 posted on 12/25/2007 7:03:17 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: mylife

“Have you ever heard someone actually use the term Groovy?”

Rachel Ray uses this term all the time. Yummo is another one of her favorite words. I’m sure she’s always saying that after smoking a joint. ;^)


85 posted on 12/25/2007 7:03:26 AM PST by dmw (Aren't you glad you use common sense? Don't you wish everybody did?)
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To: dmw

Rachael cracks herself up!

I love when she says Yummo! I hate when she says EVVO L0L

That gals a little dynamo


86 posted on 12/25/2007 7:05:48 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: rhombus
Typical War on Drugs BS article.

I thought it was one of those "never be able to seal the border" articles, too.

87 posted on 12/25/2007 7:09:21 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Larry Lucido
> Yep, $10.00 was the going rate in 1970. Or so I was told.

Yeah, same here... a friend of mine told me that once...

88 posted on 12/25/2007 7:09:44 AM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

An elbow is one pound Lb. Lb-elbow


89 posted on 12/25/2007 7:11:33 AM PST by guardian_of_liberty (We must bind the Government with the Chains of the Constitution...)
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To: WhirlwindAttack
Let's meet our next contestant, Bob Bitchin. How ya doin', Bob?

Bitchinnnnn!

90 posted on 12/25/2007 7:14:42 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Smokin' Joe
I thought it was one of those "never be able to seal the border" articles, too.

The two not button issues work so nicely here. Do you fear Mexico? Do you fear drugs?

91 posted on 12/25/2007 7:19:04 AM PST by rhombus
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To: rhombus
Considering a friend was recently hospitalized after three Mexican illegals beat the living crap out of him, I'm not a fan of the cross border invasion from the South.

I work with guys whose parents came here legally and they are the salt of the Earth, imho.

Those who are here illegally should be sent home (regardless of what country they are from).

As for drugs, some are innocuous as alcohol, others are nasty sh*t no human should mess with on a recreational basis. YMMV.

(and no, I do not like the freedom we have lost to the "war", there was a time it did not justify even petty tyranny.)

92 posted on 12/25/2007 7:57:30 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

In order to truly get a handle on illegals it will require some sort of national identification. Drivers licenses used to be a form of that identification but as we have seen “states rights” now renders the drivers license as unreliable. The loss of freedom to the War on Drugs will be quite similar to the loss of freedom to the War on the Illegal immigration. Expect to see some form of national identification cards (e.g. passports, etc.) coupled with biometric measurements to “assure” that a person is here legally and that forged documentation is difficult. How do YOU prove you are here legally? No papers? No work for you.


93 posted on 12/25/2007 8:16:15 AM PST by rhombus
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To: rhombus
For every technology there is a counter technology. It will just be more specialized and a bit more expensive. The most nefarious and dangerous illegals will have it.

For the ordinary illegal, the majority could be stopped by a physical barrier, something better than the walk-in policy we have now.

It makes little sense to burden the citizenry with proving who they are without controlling the influx. Invasion is invasion, not a question of carrying the right membership card. Controlling the border is essential, or none of the rest will matter, mainly because the second crime (the first, being here illegally) will likely have been committed, at a minimum, before the illegality is discovered.

94 posted on 12/25/2007 8:24:00 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

The barrier will stop only the very poor and for only a very short time. Many, many illegals, simply fly here and/or send money home to fly their relatives here. I’m not against walls and barriers I just have little faith that they alone will do the job for more than a short time period. As years go by it will take a massive expansion of the federal work force in border security agents, wall maintainers, identification checkers etc. to really get the job done. Yeah, I think that wall should be completed but I think there’s going to have to be many follow-up steps that many people are uncomfortable talking about.


95 posted on 12/25/2007 8:31:05 AM PST by rhombus
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To: rhombus
Frankly, the reason people would be uncomfortable with the follow up steps is that it sure seems one heck of a lot more likely the Government would use the "papers please" mentality against citizens and not the likes of MS 13.

The fence would represent a great improvement over what we have, and a good start.

While there will always be those who work around that (or under or over), the current situation is unsustainable.

96 posted on 12/25/2007 8:49:15 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: ansel12
I wonder how many people remember when you could buy a ‘matchbox’.

Duuuude....I'd forgotten 'bout the matchbox
97 posted on 12/25/2007 8:53:13 AM PST by jrg
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To: Smokin' Joe

No argument that the current situation is unsustainable... just a few thoughts about where we are going to end up, like it or not.


98 posted on 12/25/2007 9:05:54 AM PST by rhombus
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To: rhombus
I hope you are wrong, but the national ID card has been something generations have been progressively programmed for since the "not for identification purposes" came off the Social Security Card.

I am already irritated by the checkpoint/"random" stop bit, and with an increasingly paramilitary angle taken by some L.E.O.s, we are not far, really (at least are a lot closer to) from the type of tactics everyone bemoans, but would have been better suited to the Gestapo than the American Law Emforcement Agencies of my youth.

Unfortunately, the very devices we are using now will be the key to all of this unfolding--it cannot be done otherwise.

In the '60s, my mother warned me of this, and I have been aware of the development as it has progressed: that we will all, at some point have a computer file on us with all our data, in the hands of government or others, and at some point it will be used against us.

For this reason, it is ever more imperative that we support and elect Conservatives to take this country back toward its Constitutional roots. Failure to do so will be the death of the Republic. (/soapbox)

Enough for the moment.

Have a Merry Christmas, rhombus!

99 posted on 12/25/2007 9:15:41 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

A Merry Christmas to you Smokin’ Joe. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.


100 posted on 12/25/2007 9:25:08 AM PST by rhombus
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