Posted on 08/21/2009 5:46:00 PM PDT by Kaslin
Drug War: Mexico surprised everyone Thursday by "decriminalizing" drugs for "personal use" to refocus its resources. This may sound good to some, but it's waving a white flag at drug cartels that will now take advantage.
The move will probably strengthen them, something that will prolong the war and weaken the will of the civilians in the middle to give up. If that happens, Mexico's small war will become a big one.
There are reasons why legalization won't work: Bitter historic experiences, like that of Alaska, Zurich and Amsterdam, which effectively legalized drugs for small users, all ended in a reversal of course. All found that consumption grows and addicts multiply.
After that, the state gets the near-futile task of treatment at high cost. Mexico's new law says all addicts shall be treated free of cost, but right now it has just 100 clinics and won't be able to deliver.
Meanwhile, new customers mean new cash for already powerful cartels. To these organized crime groups, it means money to buy guns or to bribe officials. All of this lowers their cost of doing business, and raises it for the state to fight them.
They'll grow more powerful — not less.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
To my mind this dumps the problem of drug trafficking squarely into the lap of the United States. No laws broken here in Mexico, it is a consumption problem in the US.
........No laws broken here in Mexico, it is a consumption problem in the US......
It is a coup. The cartels are the government
Once and for all we will have proof that all out legalization produces a peaceful and productive society. Just think what they will accomplish down there without having to fill their jails with non violent offenders. jk.
I’m slightly surprised by the IBD editorial board. Most of the time when I read them they seem like they are channelling the words of my idol Milton Friedman.
I guess the board disagrees with his thoughts on this one. That’s practically a first.
Mexico demonstrates greater enlightenment than the U.S.
Wonderful. We’re out of the ‘failed nation on our border’ phase that the media ignored and now we’re into the ‘narco state on our border’ phase. I’m guessing the President will want to negotiate from a position of mutual respect and an eye toward shared goals.
Any law banning the possession of an inanimate object is by definition immoral.
I’m going to have to agree with Mexico on this one..
They need to increase the penalties so they can use reduced sentences as a means to get the users to snitch out their associates. If the prisons are running short on space, build more prisons.
I doubt Mexico’s chief drug problem is Mexicans consuming these drugs. It’s Americans consuming drugs. Perhaps this will just give smugglers another way to smuggle drugs (split up into small quantities), but what is the point of going after the small fish when you’re having enough trouble subduing the big ones? As for treatment, I can’t help but think that it encourages stupid behavior. Let people buy drugs that are plentiful and dirt cheap, and then let them see the full consequences of consuming them. Might not be pretty, but somehow I don’t think Mexico really has any choice.
The failed war on some drugs is a failure and a farce.
Living in San Diego and 20 miles north of the war in Mexico
this decision is like pouring fuil on a fire.
Legal drugs will only expand this war.
Tons of drugs are rounded up in trucks, cars, boats, etc.
all the time. People driving their cars high on drugs
injure and kill innocent people
After amounts of drugs don’t do it for the idiots, more or different types are taken. Money becomes the problem
so robbery and killing are further problems.
For those who live in small towns and cities this isn’t a major problem as it is in large cities and especially
with Mexico are your southern border.
More people have been killed and beheaded just south in Mexico in the past few years, than in Iraq
What a great idea! Now, America should legalize all “drugs” place a collectible tax on them, and we can sit back and watch the Taliban go broke, along with the other drug lords.
Now....stop and think. What if the drugs were legally consumed in the U.S. also. Would there still be a war? Or would folks peaceably transact business in a non violent manner to acquire these drugs......much the same as we now purchase our beer, wine and liquor?
Legal drugs will only expand this war. Tons of drugs are rounded up in trucks, cars, boats, etc. all the time. People driving their cars high on drugs injure and kill innocent people.
Why? If something is legal.....why would anyone "go to war" to protect their drug territory. The reason tons of drugs are rounded up now is because the government has declared them taboo! No other reason! If they weren't taboo.....would they be confiscated and rounded up....as you say? People also get high on booze....and kill people on the highways. Maybe bigger, safer cars and more stringent penalties for driving under the influence is an answer?
After amounts of drugs don’t do it for the idiots, more or different types are taken. Money becomes the problem so robbery and killing are further problems.
Not sure if I follow you here.....but are you saying that the retail price of drugs would not plummet if they were legal? It seems to me that if folks could buy their weekend high at their local drug store.....maybe they wouldn't pay more than what a bottle of aspirin costs. If we didn't have to pay exorbitant prices to the "Cripps and the Bloods" to furnish us with an illegal commodity.... the ancillary costs would be much lower. Don't you think private enterprise could do this much more efficiently.... with lower costs and....perhaps, safer drugs?
For those who live in small towns and cities this isn't a major problem as it is in large cities and especially with Mexico on your southern border.
If drugs weren't illegal, your problems.......look like they would go away.
More people have been killed and beheaded just south in Mexico in the past few years, than in Iraq.
It seems to me that you are just stating facts that are connected to the illegal trade in drugs. Do you think folks would go around beheading other people if they had no drug territory to patrol....and protect? If anyone could walk into a store and purchase some drugs why would people go to war over that?
I own a store and folks buy cigarettes from me all the time. I don't see anyone getting beheaded in my parking lot. But........if they were illegal....and I could not sell them publicly....and had to pay a thousand times their value just to acquire them wholesale.....and then turn around and rip off my customers with another insane mark up to justify my illegal involvement....then I just might see some be-headings in my parking lot!
I saved the best benefit for last. Just think of all the policeman, DEA agents, border patrol agents, attorneys, judges, prison guards and sundry bureaucrats that we could retire to "Burger King" where they could lead productive lives flipping hamburgers..... because they were no longer needed to soak up the tax dollars of a free people! I'm thinking......maybe "Hundreds of Thousands"????????
I don't do drugs....never have, and I'm in my sixties. I don't smoke cigarettes either.....but if you want them, I'll sell them to you. I do have a bottle of beer from time to time.............
I live here in San Diego. Let’s say the State legalizes pot and requires it to be sold through state controlled outlets. Much like some states regulate Alcohol.
Pot is much much easier to “Bootleg” then alcohol. All this money we are spending now on catching people with drugs will now be spent on catching Bootleggers.
My guess is they become even more aggressive since there is tax money at stake.
John
Well....you're heading in the right direction but whenever you involve government at any level....in any enterprise..... you are asking for the introduction of graft and corruption.
My guess....is that left to its own..... the free market would provide the best answers to this age old problem of consumption of spirits and substances and its inherent problem of intoxication.
My guess is they become even more aggressive since there is tax money at stake.
I really don't want my government to be aggressive at anything.....other than protecting the shores....and the borders.
Then all libertine globalists on drugs should move to Mexico now for their kind of government. Without their lobbies in the USA, we can shut the door behind them.
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