Free Republic

In an act of merciful sanity, the Obama administration has made good on its promise to stop interfering with states that allow the medical use of marijuana. Clink-clink, hear-hear, salud, cheers, et cetera, et cetera.... It's a good move, long overdue. But is it enough? Not quite. The debate over whether Americans ought to have the right to be stupid -- or to make other people seem more interesting -- continues apace after 40 years of the (failed) "war on drugs." Arguments for and against decriminalization of some or all drugs are familiar by now. Distilled to the basics, the...

Milton Friedman puts forward a compelling case for the legalization of drugs

Clinics in Violent Mexican City to Turn Away Gunshot Victims   CIUDAD JUAREZ – Private clinics in Ciudad Juarez, the scene of a bloody turf war between rival drug cartels, are refusing to treat victims of gunshot wounds due to the risk to their staff and other patients. Representatives of the clinics told authorities during a meeting that they could no longer receive this type of patients because cartel hit men have occasionally gone to hospitals to finish off a member of a rival drug mob who survived an attack. Luis Carlos Esquivel, coordinator of Mexico’s State Health Services,...

Kissimmee Police Department officers pulled Donald May over for an expired tag. So far, so good. When the officer walked up to him, he noticed something white in May's mouth. May said it was breath mints, but the officer thought it was crack cocaine. "He took them out of my mouth and put them in a baggy and locked me up [for] possession of cocaine and tampering with evidence," May explained.

Undercover Baltimore police officer Dante Arthur was doing what he does well, arresting drug dealers, when he approached a group in January. What he didn't know was that one of suspects knew from a previous arrest that Arthur was police. Arthur was shot twice in the face. In the gunfight that ensued, Arthur's partner returned fire and shot one of the suspects, three of whom were later arrested. In many ways, Dante Arthur was lucky. He lived. Nationwide, a police officer dies on duty nearly every other day. Too often a flag-draped casket is followed by miles of flashing red...

Last night 60 Minutes ran an updated report on the Mexican drug war, first aired in February. The report left little doubt about the violence and inhumanity of the Mexican drug cartels. But that is where the honesty ended. The report opens with Anderson Cooper saying: "Two years ago Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the countries powerful drug cartels.... In response the drug cartels have been fighting back hard." Critics challenge this assumption. "If the Mexican government started cracking down, why on earth would the cartels go to war with each other?" asked Glenn Spencer of American Border...

MEXICO CITY — When Mario Anguiano successfully ran for mayor of Colima three years ago, no one much cared that his brother and cousin were in prison on drug charges. Now that he's running for governor of Colima state, a banner appeared in the capital city mocking Anguiano's family ties by linking him to the Zetas, a gang of drug hit men: "Welcome to Colima! Soon to be territory of our boss of bosses, Mario Anguiano Moreno. The Zetas support you, and we are with you until death." The drug war is playing in Mexico elections like never before. Usually...

Sen. Tom Coburn, who is also a medical doctor, is calling for an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. "What we should be doing is banning tobacco," the Oklahoma Republican declared on the Senate floor during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill. "Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine." The battle against tobacco use has been ongoing. Earlier this year Congress passed legislation that included an increase in the federal tax on cigarettes of more than 60...

Drug cartel members are using a variety of fronts and subterfuges - from fake tamale stands to child decoys - to gather intelligence about enhanced U.S. border security and exploit weaknesses to send in people and drugs, according to a new report obtained by The Washington Times. The findings, by the U.S. Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group, underline the growing threat to U.S. security from a porous border. Mexican drug cartels continue to probe for gaps in border defenses while fighting one another and Mexican authorities in a violent conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people in Mexico since the...

BROWNSVILLE — A former military official brought in to purge the police force of a northern Mexico border city was assassinated early Saturday, three days after about 70 patrol officers went on strike to demand his resignation.

President Obama yesterday vowed to help Mexico combat brutal drug- trade violence ravaging that nation, saying he wants to stem the flow of guns from the United States to south of the border. "At a time when the Mexican government has so courageously taken on the drug cartels that have plagued both sides of the border, it is absolutely critical that the United States join as a full partner in dealing with this issue," Obama said during a brief visit to Mexico City. The United States - a big market for the Mexican drug trade and supplier of guns to...

Smirking for the camera, this is the 20-year-old woman Mexican police caught guarding an extraordinary arsenal of weapons. Anahi Beltran Cabrera was seized during a routine patrol in Sonora state, near the U.S. border. Officers recovered a vast cache of weapons including an anti-aircraft gun capable of firing 800 shots per minute, a number of rifles and an array of ammunition.

The last time Patrick Moroney saw his Cessna Stationair 206, it was flying away from a rural airstrip in Mulege, Mexico - hijacked by gun-toting drug runners who left him and his stunned family abandoned beside a burning car. -- SNIP -- there was no way I am getting my family out of this plane with a propeller moving. -- SNIP -- They told me I was going to die -- SNIP -- Kim Moroney called then-U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's staffers. They promised to help but nothing happened. But less than two hours after her initial conversation with one of...

Mexican drugs kingpin Vicente Carillo Leyva arrested - jogging in park Philippe Naughton Mexican police are celebrating the arrest of one of the country's most wanted drugs barons, picked up while jogging in a park in Mexico City. Vicente Carillo Leyva, the 32-year-old heir to the Juarez cartel, was still wearing his white Abercrombie & Fitch tracksuit when he was paraded before the media in the Mexican capital yesterday. The arrest was seen as a major coup for the security forces, who are often accused of letting drugs barons operate with impunity. By a happy coincidence, however, Carrillo Leyva was...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A senior US senator cautioned Monday against deployments of national guard troops to the US border with Mexico, saying such a move would be "premature and possibly counter-productive." In remarks prepared for a special hearing in the Texas border city of El Paso, Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also warned against the alarmist tone of a US debate over drug violence in Mexico. "The idea of dispatching the national guard to the border is premature and possibly counterproductive," he said. His remarks echoed those of senior administration officials who in recent days...

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the massive instability in Mexico (7000 murders in the past year, including multiple decapitations of policemen) is the fault of the United States. And this, despite the fact that the violence is spilling over into our borders. What on Earth is going on? Is this more of the "blame America first" crowd shooting from the hip? Well, given the speaker, one might be tempted to think so. But in this case, she just may have something of a point. Even the Cato Institute, that known libertarian/rightwing stronghold, has hosted discussions...

...The dismissiveness toward the question of ending Prohibition as both a good in itself and a form of tax revenue is, however, depressing. His answer was a non-answer. I'm tired of having the Prohibition issue treated as if it's trivial or a joke. It is neither. It is about freedom and it's deadly serious....

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Wednesday with the clearest acknowledgment yet from a senior Obama administration official of the role the United States plays in the violent drug trade racking Mexico.“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government is working on an integrated plan to address Mexico's escalating war with drug traffickers and could complete work on the initiative as early as this week, a top U.S. military official said on Tuesday. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who oversees U.S. military interests on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border as the head of Northern Command, told the Senate that the plan would likely involve all agencies of government including law enforcement and the military. Among the priorities are likely to be measures to deal with violence that spills over the U.S. border,...

Recent arrests in a mistaken killing point to the perilous presence of gangs The order was clear: Kill the guy in the Astros jersey. But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away. Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway. His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the...

Many people ABC-7 talked to in Juarez believe if the military does indeed take over the police department, which we refer to as “martial law” in the U.S., the calm will end and the attacks will increase to a whole new level.

WASHINGTON - Federal agents have rounded up more than 750 suspects in a wide-ranging crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating inside the United States.

I believe it is long past time to end the War on Drugs. That’s not because I approve of drug use or have any desire to encourage it. But this particular war has already gone on longer than the ones in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, put together, with no end in sight and far less to show for it. I would not only decriminalize drug use, I would give it the same legal status as tobacco and alcohol, and with the same age restrictions. For one thing, this would provide a great source of new tax revenue. Also, it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gno6p49P0Cw

TABASCO, Mexico — Gunmen killed a state police officer and 10 members of his family, including five children, during a violent weekend that left at least a dozen Mexicans dead in separate events. The shooting late Saturday also killed a street vendor in front of the house of state police officer Carlos Reyes, said Tabasco deputy prosecutor Alex Alvarez. Among the five children killed was a 2-year-old boy. Reyes was a member of a special unit of high-level officers who investigated organized crime and kidnappings, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported. Police hadn't determined a motive for the attack but...

The mailbag being nearly full, and your loyal correspondent, thanks to a sinus headache, having been shuffling around this past week like the archetypal Vulcan in the old "Spock's Brain" Star Trek episode (third season, original series), herewith some recent missives of interest: Brian writes in: "Vin, thanks for the refreshing article 'Greenland and the polar ice cap are melting.' I am often irritated by articles claiming that we need to reduce man-made CO2 gas to save the planet from global warming. It is amazing that there are so many people (including government leaders) who believe we can alter global...

Tonight on Glenn Beck, he revisited an issue he's long been championing; and that's to make sure that all Americans are aware of the serious problem of kidnappings and killings on our Mexican border - on both sides. Watch as William Slemaker tells the story of his step-daughter, Yvette Martinez, who was reportedly stopped by a municipal police officer in Mexico after leaving a concert, then More..given to a local drug lord as a gift. She's been missing since 2004, and Glenn is proud to let Slemaker know he's finally with a network (Fox News) that has their priorities straight....

PHOENIX — As police approached a drug cartel's safe house in northwestern Mexico last May, gunmen inside poured on fire with powerful assault rifles and grenades, killing seven officers whose weapons were no match. Four more lawmen were wounded in the bloodbath and a cache of weapons was seized, including a single AK-47 assault rifle that authorities say was purchased 800 miles away at a Phoenix gun shop and smuggled into Mexico.

Mexican authorities have arrested a drug suspect who claims to have used corrosive chemicals to dissolve 300 corpses of other drug criminals during 2008. Santiago Meza Lopez, 45, confessed to having disposed of rivals for drug kingpin Teodoro Garcia Simental, the defence ministry said in a statement on Friday. Lopez and two other suspects were arrested in Tijuana in northern Mexico on Thursday, the ministry said. Tijuana, located near the US border, is in the centre of Mexico's increasingly brutal drug war. Meza Lopez, known as Posolero del Teo (Teo's Stew Maker), said he got rid of the bodies, "the...

On Tuesday afternoon El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a resolution unanimously passed by city council that would have asked the U.S. government to begin a serious debate on legalizing narcotics. Earlier in the day city council passed a resolution, rationing that the best way to stop the drug wars in Juarez may be to legalize the drugs here in the United States. It was part of a larger resolution outlining several steps for the United States and Mexico to take in order to cut down on the number of murders between rival drug cartels. Last year more than 1,600...

Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Doug Gillespie on Monday praised the poise of three officers who were shot Sunday night while serving a narcotics search warrant in Henderson. Gillespie said the SWAT unit involved in the operation showed restraint by not shooting a suspect who had fired through a door at officers who were trying to enter the house at 2972 Panorama Ridge Drive, near Seven Hills Drive and Sunridge Heights Parkway.

Mexico has a serious drug problem these days. So serious that over 5,000 people have died this year due to drug-related violence. More than 5,000 dead. And that number keeps growing every day. How do you begin to understand that so many people are dying in Mexico? More than 5,000 casualties because of "narcotrafficking." That’s more than all of the American troops that have died fighting an actual war in Iraq. It is hard to keep a tally, but Mexico´s El Universal newspaper does a good job of keeping score. Mexican drug cartels, dominated by the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels,...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

The Bambu rolling-paper company is smoking mad at a Barack Obama-loving artist for using its iconic packaging on T-shirts that show the president-elect smoking a joint. Seamus McGovern and his "Love Fatigues" Web business were hit with a trademark-infringement suit for putting Obama's name and face on the beige and white cover of "the world's finest rolling papers." The Manhattan federal court case claims the $22 "Obambu" shirts expose Bambu to "criticism and scorn" because they show Obama smoking weed, and could "confuse the consuming public" into believing they came from the company.

A MALE corpse wearing a nappy and another dressed in women's clothes were among 17 bodies found near Mexico's northern border. "One had a pacifier hanging around his neck and was only wearing a diaper, while the second was dressed as a woman," said Jose Manuel Yepiz, spokesman for the prosecutor's office of northwestern Baja California state. Police found a total of five bodies in the border city of Tijuana across from San Diego in the US, and 12 others in the violent state of Chihuahua, including one decapitated body and three that had been tortured. Violence has escalated in...

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. government finally released the first part of a $400 million aid package Wednesday to support Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels. The money comes at a critical time: Mexico's death toll from drug violence has soared above 4,000 so far this year, and drug-related murders and kidnappings are spilling over the U.S. border as well. U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza formally released $197 million at a signing ceremony in Mexico City. The rest will be disbursed throughout the year. Garza said the Merida Initiative aid will enable the U.S. and Mexico to...

Over 40 Murders Reported this Week CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - New details on a deadly discovery across the border from El Paso. This morning police in Ciudad Juarez say at least 12 masked gun men opened fire inside an upscale seafood restaurant and killed at least eight people. The attack comes a day after seven men were found executed in a school soccer field in an upper class neighborhood in Juarez. In all, 40 murders were reported over the holiday week along the border near El Paso. Police say the men were armed with AK-47 and fired off more than...

Brownsville police arrested a Texas state trooper on Saturday morning as he aledgely was finishing a drug deal, Brownsville Police Sgt. Jimmy Manrrique said on Monday. Jesus Rafael Larrazolo, 35, a four-year veteran of the Texas Department of Public Safety, was arrested by police at 10 a.m. in the parking lot of Best Buy as he was loading his car with more than 60 pounds of cocaine after having purchased the drugs in front of police, Manrrique said. A group of detectives from the Special Investigations Unit were conducting routine surveillance in the Pablo Kisel area, when they noticed suspicious...

A Grammy Award-winning rapper and music producer originally sentenced to 14 years in prison for smuggling cocaine is one of 16 people receiving pardons or reduced sentences from President Bush. John Edward Forte of North Brunswick, N.J., a graduate of the elite Phillips Exeter Academy prep school who later became a producer for the rap group The Fugees and released two albums on his own, was caught in 2000 at Newark International Airport with two briefcases filled with $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine, according to court documents. Forte, 33, a first-time offender, was convicted of possessing the 31 pounds...

Few rituals are more futile than the "housecleaning" of Mexico's police forces. So deep, broad and brazen is cop corruption south of the border that removing it makes eradicating rats from landfills look easy. Mexico stages quasi-annual purges of officers high and low — last year it was 284 federal police commanders — and yet every year it seems to find itself with an even more criminal constabulary. This year's scandals, however, are especially appalling. Over the summer, President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug czar, Noe Ramirez, resigned abruptly. This week, the likely reason became apparent after Ramirez was detained and accused...

MEXICO CITY — Interpol is sending a special investigative team to Mexico to determine whether sensitive information from its database on criminals and terrorists was leaked to drug cartels, the agency said Wednesday. Interpol launched the probe after Mexican federal police official Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas was placed under house arrest as part of an investigation of law enforcement officers who allegedly shared police information with traffickers. Gutierrez Vargas directed the international police agency's National Central Bureau in Mexico, where he had access to Interpol's database of information on suspected terrorists, wanted persons, fingerprints and DNA profiles, among other data, the...

In Mexico's worst case of drug-related corruption in a decade, a drug cartel infiltrated the highest levels of Mexico's Attorney General's Office, paying as much as $450,000 a month to get sensitive information about anti-drug activities, Mexican officials said on Monday. The cartel even seemingly placed a mole inside the U.S. Embassy that fed the drug lords information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a copy of an arrest warrant seen by The Wall Street Journal and obtained by Mexican newspaper El Universal. A DEA spokesman said: "We are currently investigating this issue along with our Mexican counterparts."...

PORTERVILLE, Calif. — National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said. The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

MEXICO CITY - About 200 soldiers and police engaged in a five-hour battle with gunmen in northern Mexico on Wednesday, killing two suspected hitmen amid rising violence in Mexico's war on drug traffickers. After receiving a tip, police and troops circled a heavily armed group of gunmen in 12 SUVs near the sleepy town of Imuris, in Sonora state near Arizona, local officials said. At least one policeman was wounded in the shootout. Most of the gunmen escaped. "They are still looking for them with helicopters," Imuris Mayor Carlos Gallego told Reuters. About 20 to 30 men were in the...

A raid gone wrong: Time to rein in police SWAT teams Published: Friday, September 19, 2008 Marc Fisher The Press of Atlantic City 9/19/09 It's sad, of course, that Cheye Calvo's dogs were blown away, left for hours in two pools of blood on the floors of his living and dining rooms. It's unfortunate, to be sure, that Calvo's front door had to be burst open, that it was necessary to plant his mother-in-law on the floor, arms bound, a high-caliber weapon pointed at her head, or that his house had to be trashed, every drawer flipped over, his belongings...

An escalating turf fight between warring drug cartels in Mexico is spreading into the United States with federal officials warning that deadly shootouts and ambushes along the southwestern border pose a serious threat to both U.S. law enforcement and American citizens, according to a confidential multi-agency government report.

Eleven decapitated bodies have been found outside the city of Merida on the Yucatan peninsula, heightening fears that Mexico's recent descent into violence has reached even heavily protected tourist areas. All the bodies showed signs of torture and were tattooed with star signs and the letter “Z”, suggesting that they had fallen victim to the country's growing drug war, which has left more than 2,700 dead so far this year. Merida is a popular stop-off point for tourists on their way to visit the Mayan pyramids at Chichen Itza. On the other side of the Yucatan peninsula is Cancun, a...

The U.S. Border Patrol agent's union reported that Mexican soldiers crossed into U.S. territory and held an agent captive at gunpoint during a Sunday night incident. The National Boder Patrol Council Local 2544 in Tuscon reported on its website that reported that the incident occured near Ajo, Arizona. The union website reported that the soldiers returned to Mexico without further incident after reinforcements arrived to confront them. It's not clear why Mexican soldiers were on U.S. territory but union officials said in their website that Mexican soldiers have been known to protect Mexican drug gangs and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this...

For the first time in recent years Cameron County's Democratic Party may not have a candidate on the ballot for a constable's race in the November general election. Precinct 1 Constable Saul P. Ochoa was to represent the party in the election, but after pleading guilty last month to a charge of distributing marijuana, it knocks him out of the race. The Democratic Party has until Aug. 26 to nominate another candidate in his place. However, with Ochoa's sentencing on the drug charge not scheduled until Sept. 22, this leaves the party without a candidate in this election. "I don't...