Mexican police attacked by suspected cartel hitmen

Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | March 1, 2009

[SwinneySwitch]

MEXICO CITY — Federal police made two arrests and confiscated weapons and marijuana Sunday in Tijuana, across the U.S. border from San Diego, after coming under attack by men linked to a drug cartel.

Police said one of the suspects told them they worked for “the engineer,” an apparent reference to a leader of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Officers, who were not injured in the attack, seized three assault rifles, pistols and bundles of marijuana.

- snip -

On Saturday, two police officers in the town of Praxedis Guerrero were shot dead in their patrol vehicle, prosecutors said.

The town is just south of Ciudad Juarez, a city bordering Texas where more Mexican troops are being sent to fight the cartels.

In the southern state of Guerrero on Sunday, police reported finding a badly burned body, apparently from a fire fueled by tires, in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

The man’s body was found on the side of the highway leading to the beach town of Zihuatanejo....

[Blue State Insurgent]

Why should any american buy mexican marijuana. I mean, really.

[Ken H]

Agree. Mexican cartels make the majority of their money from marijuana. Legalize and regulate like alcohol, and deprive them of their life blood.

[SwinneySwitch]

Zihuatanejo ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[SwinneySwitch]

Let’s see how the Obama Plan works out.

[wolfcreek]

My, this is getting repetitious. And we thought the news out of the middle east was constant.

[Ken H]

What is the Obama Plan?

[B.O. Plenty]

Ken H:

I agree with you. I have posted this idea for many years, and I often get beat up for my stance.

I think the WOD is unwinable as it is being "waged".

My opinion is that there are 2 ways to actually "win" the WOD...either:

1) Make the penalty for selling or using drugs so horrible that only lunatics would do it. This means sumary execution on the spot.(which will NEVER happen)...or

2) Legalization and regulation like you said.

Any other contrived "solution" is a fools errand IMO.

[P.O.E.]

Problem with that is too many law enforcement on the take.

It’s like expecting Congress to enact a pay decrease.

[P.O.E.]

Problem with that is too many law enforcement on the take.

It’s like expecting Congress to enact a pay decrease.

[P.O.E.]

Has Obama decided to tax double-posts yet?

[csmusaret]

El Pasoans need to keep their heads down...http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11815696

[Blue State Insurgent]

Maybe it would be better to leave things as they are then to legalize marijuana and have the ATF thugs make sure that the taxes are collected on it.

[SwinneySwitch]

First Barack Obama was for decriminalization of marijuana.

Then he was against it.

Then he said he was for it.

Then he was against it.

Now, I think, he’s for decriminalization of marijuana.

HealthNews.com (today)
No More Federal Marijuana Raids Under President Obama

http://www.healthnews.com/natural-health/alternative-medicine/no-more-federal-marijuana-raids-under-president-obama-2712.html

Barack Obama: “I inhaled frequently” “That was the point”

[Ken H]

Have you heard of any abuses by the ATF in the regulation of alcohol, such as no knock raids on people's homes or killing of dogs? I haven't.

The idea that regulating a legal marijuana market would involve more government effort than enforcing its prohibition is nonsense.

[Ken H]

Is prohibiting a plant that was completely legal for the first 150 years of the Republic, and that provides the Mexican cartels with nearly 2/3 of their income a sensible policy, or is it a stupid policy?

I say it's a stupid policy.

[DaGman]

"Why should any american buy mexican marijuana. I mean, really."

As opposed to what? Jamaican Lambswool?

[Ken H]

Just checked your homepage. Man, I didn't know you were so old!

I agree with everything* you said. With fedgov giving the green light to medical marijuana, and CA greedily eyeing those billion$ of untaxed profits, I say the War on Marijuana is collapsing.

*almost everything:) link to FR post showing heroin addiction higher in Iran, Singapore and the US than in The Netherlands

[Ken H]

Another handy piece of information:

Dutch drug policies do not increase marijuana use, first rigorous comparative study finds

-snip-

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Dutch Ministry of Health.

http://www.ucsc.edu/currents/03-04/05-03/drug_study.html

[SwinneySwitch]

The Surgeon General’s Warning on Marijuana

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001143.htm

Among the known or suspected chronic effects of marijuana are:

1. short-term memory impairment and slowness of learning.

2. impaired lung function similar to that found in cigarette smokers. Indications are that more serious effects, such as cancer and other lung disease, follow extended use.

3. decreased sperm count and sperm motility.

4. interference with ovulation and pre-natal development.

5. impaired immune response.

6. possible adverse effects on heart function.

7. by-products of marijuana remaining in body fat for several weeks, with unknown consequences. The storage of these by-products increases the possiblilties for chronic, as well as residual, effects on performance, even after the acute reaction to the drug has worn off. Of special concern are the long-term developmental effects in children and adolescents, who are particularly vulnerable to the drug’s behavioral and psychological effects. The “amotivational syndrome,” characterized by a pattern of energy loss, diminished school performance, harmed parental relationships, and other behavorial disruptions, has been associated with prolonged marijuana use by young persons. Although more research is required, recent national surveys report that 40% of heavy users experience some or all of those symptoms.