Increased gang violence in Mexico has made November the bloodiest month this year, with 943 murders.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Morez says the peak is yet to come.
This is just more evidence of what an utter failure the Drug War is. Not seeing improvement, Congress pisses more money towards buying crony war toys
and giving them away.
Obama says his administration will decrease wasteful spending, and this sure fits the bill. More national attention needs to be drawn towards the Drug War so that spending will decrease, and Cannabis legalization may finally happen.
Some gang dissolved into factions that are now at war and slaughtering policemen and rival gang members. Mexican drug cartels make most of their money by trafficking, mostly cocaine. Marijuana and methamphetamine is manufactured in Mexico as well.
Wiki says 12-15 billion flows from the U.S. to Mexico each year, that's just cash. Part of this money, and the violence, is for marijuana, something that imo should be legalized.
Now, no doubt the intention of most of this money is to stop cocaine and meth, which are real problem drugs today. But its hard to support initiatives like the Merida Plan when its so blatantly wasting money on absolute crap.
For 2008, the first year, the Merida Plan will give $400 million, over half (204m)will go towards the military to purchase 8 helicopters and 2 small surveillance aircraft. Toys.
The bill also requires that $73.5 million of the $400 million for Mexico must be used for judicial reform, institution-building, human rights and rule-of-law issues. I'm sure we'll see leeway in all these areas, especially the prison-building.
Bush is such a sham. During the 90s under Clinton, the Administration funded a major cocaine study that found that:
$3 billion should be switched from federal and local law enforcement to treatment. The report said that treatment is the cheapest and most effective way to cut drug use. President Clinton's drug czar's office rejected slashing law enforcement spending. The Bush administration proposed cutting spending on drug treatment and prevention programs by $73 million, or 1.5%, in the 2009 budget, which hasn't been approved yet.
This is funding that should NOT be slashed, if anything it should increase while enforcement funding decreases.
The problem with opposing the drug war is that the only obvious ways to do so are via marijuana legalization organizations. We need more ways to object this ridiculous drug war. Make it known.