Replies

Agreed.

I just don't think Government (both Lib and Con), as well as Law Enforcement, have the gray matter to think that far.

Thus, expect to see more silly perps with hanging pants getting chased down by panting cops on the the police-theme reality TV shows. After all, they are 'working hard' catching those pant-shufflers.

And to think of it ....a week ago a FReeper was saying that Bernie madoff should not be sent to jail but instead imprisoned at home (reason: so that tax payer money would not be spent feeding and housing him), YET no questions are raised about the thousands sitting in jail for far less crimes.

But hey ....the cops sure do work hard running down those pant shufflers (my term for anyone wearing pants at their knees, and then expecting to outrun the police. No wonder heavy-weight cops are seen to catch up with early 20-something athletic types ....it is the shuffling pants perps! Buy a belt)

Seriously though, legalizing marijuana would seriously impact the drug cartels. As TKDietz said, there is major cash flow from it. However, that option is almost anathema (even though at the voter level, a number of people from both the Left and the Right see the logic in it, but the politicians will not touch it). Thus, the war against marijuana is basically limited to arresting the corner small-fry, or having debates about medical marijuana and whether it is 'right' to let someone suffering chronic pain smoke a joint or two, or whether politicians 'inhaled' or not during COLLEGE (goodness, almost everyone did some serious stuff in college ...for some it was drugs, others it was sex, others it was alcohol, or parties, others it was .......fill in the blank .....most of them should not be questions one is asked decades later when they are running for office, since they are most probably quite different now compared to then) .....and while all that is going on, a billion Dollar business continues unabated to the extent that Dollar billionaires are now being made. Oh, and obviously this is not the only guy ....narco-biz is big business around the world. In Israel, Russia, Africa (goodness, we just had an assasination two weeks ago in Guinea Bissau, where one of the heads of the military was killed by order of the president, and the president was subsequently killed by the military. Guinea Bissau is an entire country run by drug money, with Colombian drug cartels using it as a shipping stop-point to Europe. Dig this ...the cocaine flow-through gives revenues 10 TIMES greater than that of Guinea Bissau's 'normal' economy, although it should be taken that cocaine is now GB's normal economy! Thus, if drug cartels can give a country flow-through greater than 10 times its normal GDP of US$ 800 million, which though small even for an African country is still a lot of money for most people, and ten times that means a flow through of 8 billion through ONE SMALL AFRICAN COUNTRY alone, just how much money do you think the cartels have?).

I see a point where cartels become more powerful than the countries they are based in (as has happened in some countries in S. America, and may arguably happen in Mexico), and start buying jet fighters and the like. After all, the Tamil Tigers (who are terrorists) had an airforce, thus why wouldn't cartels (who definitely have more money than many governments) not be able to afford them? Also, there were reports in 2005 of some cartels using mini-subs to transport drugs, with the thing being most of those being crude homebuilt versions. They have the money to get good ones now ....even 'real' submarines. A Kilo sub is quite affordable to a cartel, is very very quiet, and they can also get a trained crew with it using ex-Russian/Chinese sailors. Maybe they already have ....there is a LOT of drugs getting into the US somehow....

But hey ....let's have overweight cops chase after pant-shufflers, or maybe (for the sheer fun heck of it) let's have a no-knock raid in some old foggies house, and later on give an 'oops wrong address'