Mr. "It's a legitimate topic for discussion" has recently met with the President of Mexico and while cheerfully listening to activists such as the police officers from LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) Obama and Calderon are basically going to again re-double the military/law-enforcement angle that maintains the status quo, that supports illegal drug prices, that support the profits for drug trafficking that nurture and embolden the Mexican Cartels, which are responsible for killing thousands of people yearly.
Same. As. It. Ever. Was.
Encourage public discourse but make it clear - nothing is going to change.
Stay the course, damn the torpedoes and dead people. Full speed ahead.
Legalization activists slam Obama’s renewed commitment to drug war
WASHINGTON – The pro-legalization group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition fretted that President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon were embarking on a counterproductive mission after the two pledged "renewed cooperation" on the drug war Thursday.
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"Both presidents have said recently that legalizing and regulating drugs is a legitimate topic for discussion, so it would truly be a shame if they didn't take the time to talk about this issue when they met behind closed doors," he said.
'Renewed cooperation' means more militarized responses that reinforce the status quo in this game. Dead innocent people are still preferable to regulated marijuana in America.
I have no illusions that powerful forces want to keep marijuana illegal.
The DEA owes its existence to marijuana prohibition. They will never relent. Obama has appointed a knuckledragger to head that failure of an agency. That person believes all the violence is a good thing.
Skyrocketing violence south of the border indicates the Mexican government's efforts to fight drug cartels are paying off, senior Drug Enforcement Administration officials said on Wednesday.
"Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having," said Michele Leonhart, acting DEA administrator. "The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals."
Your tax dollars pay for that.
And, of course, everybody knows the CIA makes shitloads of money of illegal drug trafficking: legalize marijuana and you cut into their clandestine funds.
And Obama is trying so hard to be liked by wingnuts, you count him out. He just wants to talk about how it's a legitimate topic for conversation, but like an authoritarian parent, you KNOW he's not budging at all, facts be damned.
That said, that IS the role of the president. McCain would be doing the same thing, so would Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Sarah Palin or President Limbaugh. It's the script presidents are paid to stick to.
So, as it is with so many other things in life, progress on this issue comes directly from the people.
"Legalization is the only way to end the cartel violence, just like ending alcohol prohibition was the only way to make gangsters stop shooting each other over beer and liquor distribution," Tom Angell, a spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told Raw Story in an e-mail. "How many more police officers and innocent civilians will these leaders allow to die before they finally tackle the one true solution to this violence?"
How many more have to die?
LOTS.
The DEA, among other anti-legalization forces, view all the killing in Mexico as "progress". It's a good thing. They want you to believe that is American policy being effective.
Which is horseshit, of course.
Recently an ICE Agent named Jaime Zapata was was killed in Mexico, something that Calderon said should spur America and Mexico towards finding a more peaceful solution. But that, of course, is mere political hot air.
Wikileaks came playing into this:
After his death, leaked State Department cables revealed a top US diplomat bashing Mexico's capacity to gather intelligence and fight cartels.
In response, Calderon last week told the Mexico-based El Universal that US efforts were "notoriously insufficient" and ripped Americans officials for "ignorance" regarding the realities of the drug trade.
I never know how to come down on this: Americans just can't be as stupid about drug policy as they seem. It's seems impossible for them to really be that abjectly stupid, but then we see this absolute refusal to even begin to entertain the ONLY REAL solution to the problem.
So the fix is always the same: more police, more military, more money, more guns, more violence, more death and the problem will remain in place indefinitely.
This after more than a trillion dollars has been BLOWN on this issue accomplishing jack shit.
MEXICO CITY — After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.
Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.
"In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."
Dumbasses.
Legalization and regulation - which ARE interchangeable terms - is the ONLY way.
There is no other way to address this.
None.