Now, expect a shit storm from the left, center, and right for an end to the decades long, failed war on drugs, or, the freedom to use drugs. Because if this latest shootout is what over 1 trillion dollars brings combating the usage and illegal production of drugs, then it's time we legalized all drugs and finally help out our neighbors to the south.
Who was it that said trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the mark of insanity?
21 Die in Gang Battle Near U.S. Border By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HERMOSILLO, Mexico — A massive gun battle between rival drug and migrant-trafficking gangs near the U.S. border left 21 people dead on Thursday, prosecutors said.
The clash occurred in a sparsely populated area about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Arizona border — a prime corridor for immigrant and drug smuggling.
Expect Jan Brewer and the rest of the Arizona GOP to use this for political ammo in the immigration battle. 21 more people have died as of a result of failed drug policies, and as of this date around 23,000 people have died due to drug violence. Most of this due to the absolutely understated FAILED war on drugs, dressed up in the perfect disguise. Walter Cronkite said we are a nation at 2 wars, now 3. The second war is our government's war on it's own citizens.
How else can you explain jailing somebody in a human cesspool only for lighting up a plant and inhaling the vapors. This plant is 60% of the Drug Cartel's profits, and America is their biggest buyer. How can a nation explain, how $450 billion dollars can be spent incarcerating it's own citizens in federal penitentiaries, where absolute scum dwells.
We fuel the drug war, which is what happens when you are still in an era of prohibition. If it's not controlled by the state then it ends up on the black market. So we have to deal with the consequences, but then the American citizen who is aware knows what is needed to stop all of this pain and suffering. It's the politicians who don't want to somehow upset their wealthy donors by stopping this.
We are, as a country (our tax dollars), waging a war on our citizens and enabling drug cartels to cause destruction where ever they see potential turf.
Sonora's Attorney General's Office said in a statement that nine people were captured by police at the scene of the shooting, six of whom had been wounded in the confrontation. Authorities at the scene found seven rifles.
Officials did not say why the gunfight had broken out, but powerful and well-armed Mexican gangs often fight for control of smuggling routes into the United States.
In a city on another part of the U.S. border, gunmen killed an assistant attorney general for Chihuahua state and one of her bodyguards.
People are dead and people continue to die, so what the hell will it take for our politicians to wake up and realize something needs to be done now. Innocent citizens who use drugs but do not violate or infringe upon anyone's rights are constantly locked up around our country. Here, we have to also worry about the PIC, the Prison Industrial Complex. For profit prisons stand to gain from all of these extra victims.
From an AP article but broken down by Christopher Fox via Revenge of the Gamer:
$20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico – and the violence along with it.
$33 billion in marketing "Just Say No"-style messages to America’s youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have "risen steadily" since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.
$49 billion for law enforcement along America’s borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.
The Justice Department estimates the consequences of drug abuse – "an overburdened justice system, a strained health care system, lost productivity, and environmental destruction" – cost the United States $215 billion a year.
$121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.
$450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.