Drug WarRant

Clinton: US ambassador to Mexico has resigned

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual, who criticized his host government’s handling of the drug problem in a cable divulged by the WikiLeaks website, has resigned, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday.

President Felipe Calderon, who met earlier this month with Obama at the White House, had taken umbrage publicly in February over remarks Pascual made in a diplomatic cable about the Mexicans’ handling of the anti-drug trafficking effort there. The diplomatic document was among tens of thousands disclosed by the WikiLeaks website. […]

In a newspaper interview published in late February, Calderon said that U.S.-Mexico relations had been strained because of the leaks of cables.

He specifically cited Pascual’s cable, which he suggested was disparaging of Mexico. The cable said there was little coordination among Mexican federal agencies assigned to battle drug gangs, including Mexico’s army, navy and federal police. The Mexican president said in the interview with El Universal that the cables show U.S. diplomats are ignorant about Mexico’s security situation and are prone to distort and exaggerate “to get their bosses’ attention.”

Calderon said at the time that the U.S. government should help Mexico’s fight against drug gangs by reducing drug use in the United States, the biggest consumer of illegal drugs in the world, and by stemming the flow of automatic rifles to the cartels.

So basically, his fault was to have the wrong stupid idea about the drug war instead of having the correct stupid idea about the drug war.

After the Seattle Times came out with a powerful editorial for marijuana legalization last month, the drug czar was immediately on a plane to go talk to them. Some speculated that he would apply pressure on the paper to ease off. Whether that was on his mind or not, it’s clear that the Times has made up its mind and is holding to its position.

In today’s paper: The serious business of marijuana legalization

THE marijuana legalization bill, House Bill 1550, may be stopped for this session of the Legislature. But this issue has been moving as never before, and it needs to keep moving.

This page has been part of it. On Feb. 20 we came out for regulation and taxation of cannabis for adult use, which HB 1550 would do through the state liquor stores. That The Seattle Times would say this lowers the risk for public officials to say it. At the hearing Wednesday at the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, you could feel the change.

There were no Cheech and Chong jokes. This was serious business.

Excellent.

Well-known marijuana legalization advocate upbeat despite terminal lung cancer diagnosis

This is very unwelcome news about Ben Masel. My thoughts are with him.

I had a great time the one time we got together — for coffee and Beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.

Ben is a tireless advocate and has been a powerful political influence in Wisconsin. I hope that every day for him is a good one.

This article seems to be very poor reporting by Samara Kalk Derby. How can you merely repeat “the jury’s out” language from Dr. Fiore regarding marijuana and lung cancer, and not mention the largest ever study done on the issue, funded by the U.S. government?

The words “Drugs” and “Terrorism” have developed a power unto themselves. You can use them to justify any government action or expenditure and suddenly things like budget, logic, evidence or accountability are forgotten.

It’s no surprise that new UNODC director and hard-liner Yuri Fedotov understands this.

Growing links between crime and terrorism the focus of UN forum

Highlighting the growing nexus between global criminal acts, including drug trafficking and money laundering, and terrorism, a top United Nations official today called for boosting efforts to tackle these threats.
Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told participants at a terrorism symposium in Vienna that profits from criminal activity are increasingly being used to fund terrorist acts. […]

“Thanks to advances in technology, communication, finance and transport, loose networks of terrorists and organized criminal groups that operate internationally can easily link with each other. By pooling their resources and expertise, they can significantly increase their capacity to do harm.”

According to UNODC, drug trafficking, transnational organized crime, the movement of illicit firearms and money laundering have become integral parts of terrorism.

Look! Drugs! Terrorism! We need to fight harder!

It’s a simplistic device designed to appeal to fear that ends up making us less safe.

Now I’m a full-blown opponent of the death penalty. I think it’s immoral, impractical, unfairly administered, and has way too much potential for error. I also reject the notion that a free individual can assign that duty to someone else (nominally called “the government”) and escape personal responsibility. I’m thrilled that Illinois has finally abolished it completely.

Still, I find this story about the DEA seizing an execution drug from the state of Georgia morbidly amusing.

Georgia Execution Drug Is Seized

The Drug Enforcement Administration has seized a key execution drug from the Georgia prison system because of concerns about how the state imported the drug from overseas.

Like other states, Georgia last year was forced to import thiopental sodium from England due to a U.S. shortage of the drug, which is used to carry out lethal injections.

“Questions came to light with how the substance was imported” by Georgia, said DEA agent Chuvalo Truesdell, declining to elaborate. He said the DEA will retain control of the drug while it conducts an investigation, which could last up to six months.

Good thing the DEA’s all over that. Importing drugs without proper federal clearance could result in dangerous drugs that might end up killing someone…

Must be a tough job seizing execution drugs from states and tracking down those pesky medical marijuana dealers in Montana.

The original headline of this New York Times article was:

US Drones Fly Deep in Mexico to Fight Drugs

I immediately had an image of a dogfight between a flying Cheech-and-Chong-sized joint and an unmanned drone.

Apparently, someone was awake and mildly aware at the Times, and they changed the headline.

The content is disturbing enough without the joint dogfight.

Mexican and American officials say Mexico turns a blind eye to American wiretapping of the telephone lines of drug-trafficking suspects, and similarly to American law enforcement officials carrying weapons in violation of longstanding Mexican restrictions.

Officials on both sides of the border also said that Mexico asked the United States to use its drones to help track suspects’ movements. The officials said that while Mexico had its own unmanned aerial vehicles, they did not have the range or high-resolution capabilities necessary for certain surveillance activities.

One American military official said the Pentagon had flown a number of flights over the past month using the Global Hawk drones — a spy plane that can fly higher than 60,000 feet and survey about 40,000 square miles of territory in a day. They cannot be readily seen by drug traffickers — or ordinary Mexicans — on the ground.

But no one would say exactly how many drone flights had been conducted by the United States, or how many were anticipated under the new agreement. The officials cited the secrecy of drug investigations, and concerns that airing such details might endanger American and Mexican officials on the ground.

Inviting another country to send spy planes over your soil to spy on your citizens. Hmmm…. That’s another kind of mental image.

Scouring the internet for drug-war-related writing that missed the boat…

In our continuing series of pieces by students we have the rather bizarre waste of space in the Nexus titled Drug Slogan Stinks

“Nice people take drugs.”

These are the words that catch my eye on a recent AIDS Vancouver Island poster. I stop to take another glance at this poster; I re-read the slogan, and, because I’m not high on drugs, thus making me a jerk, I can’t help but think, “Dumbest. Slogan. Ever.” […]

While there’s some truth in saying nice people take drugs, the simple fact is that this statement is too bold and exclusive; it insinuates that only nice people take drugs, which isn’t true, and that only mean people are sober.

Apparently English classes are not taught at this particular college.

Next, we have a professional – Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institute – writing for the Houston Chronicle: A smarter drug interdiction policy for Mexico

Ramping up of the campaign against Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) without being truly strategic may satisfy some critics, but it will not enhance the necessary development of law enforcement, justice and corrections institutions in Mexico that are needed to make real headway in ending the Mexican drug wars. Counterproductively, non-strategic action will likely further increase the violence and decrease Mexican public support for the effort in the long term. […]

A key reason for the violence in Mexico is the way interdiction operations have been carried out – focusing the hollowed-out law enforcement and justice sector on high-value targets, such as top capos, and arresting tens of thousands of foot soldiers, while the middle layer of DTO operators has not been severely affected. […]

Expanding targeting to the middle layer needs to become a key feature of the strategy in Mexico, along with a steadfast institutional development and social policies to reduce communities’ vulnerability to crime. Reducing violence equally needs to be integrated into strategy – otherwise, public support in Mexico will continue to weaken and temptations by local officials to strike deals with the narcos will increase.

Note how pathetic the arguments start to sound when the author is unable to consider prohibition as a cause of violence. It always boils down to some form of “we just haven’t been strong enough in our prohibition efforts.”

And yet, a third grader could see the gaping hole in this argument. Even if you remove both the top and the middle of the organization, it still leaves a void to be filled as long as prohibition exists, and it will probably be filled violently.

Finally, an idiot.

It’s almost unfair to take pieces from Cliff Kinkaid’s “Accuracy in Media” site, but here’s an AIM Special Report by Michael P. Temoglie: How State Budget Battles Could Mean More Criminals Back on the Streets

On the surface, the budget fight in Wisconsin has involved issues like collective bargaining and pay increases for public employees. What has been largely ignored is that Governor Scott Walker, who is determined to cut spending, won’t make significant cuts to the prisons. This has made him a special target for liberal commentators. […]

In fact, Walker’s budget would end a Wisconsin program allowing some nonviolent offenders to seek early release from prison, which Republicans had derided as “catch and release.” […]

Walker favors a truth-in-sentencing law that requires prisoners to serve their entire sentence without time taken off for good behavior.

If the liberal unions eventually succeed in Wisconsin and other states and budgets remain out of balance, we can anticipate the liberal left proposing this “cost effective” way of dealing with lawbreakers—“prison reform” through releasing criminals back on the streets. This is the fall-back position when liberals are pressed for budget cuts of their own on the state level.

The appeal of “prison reform” is such that some conservatives have expressed support for it. Ultimately, however, it means reducing the number of criminals in prison. While some public money would be saved, the cost in lives and injuries carried out by criminals back on the streets would be difficult to estimate. The public needs to be on-guard against a renewed push to open the prison gates in the name of saving public money.

That’s right – it’s a conservative call for big government spending on increased incarceration, because apparently we don’t have enough of that going on here. Even non-violent criminals, once released, will apparently resort to violence. By this logic, once we incarcerate anyone for anything, we should never release them.

More Prisons, Less Crime

Otis said that the answer is readily apparent —“when you put in jail the people who commit crime you get less crime. Conversely, when you start releasing them, you will get more crime.”

Of course, this isn’t true – particularly when you factor in the drug war. With the drug war, when you put people in jail you get more crime. Arresting one drug dealer creates a job opening and now you have two.

The whole piece is a rambling 6,000 word nonsensical diatribe with footnotes, slamming judges, invoking the demon name of Soros, regularly tossing out the “liberal” word as an epithet, and calling it all a Special Report.

No government in the world can compete with the black market in financial compensation for police officers. – Guitherisms

City Hall Plotters Accused in Gun-Smuggling Scheme

Even in a border town where smugglers have moved contraband to and from Mexico for generations, no one here expected the mayor, the police chief and a town councilman to be accused in an international gun-running scheme.

Federal agents last week arrested the men along with seven other people for allegedly conspiring to smuggle hundreds of semi-automatic weapons into Mexico. […]

The mayor, Eddie Espinoza, allegedly served as a so-called straw buyer for 22 pistols, and he leased an apartment in a gated El Paso, Texas complex that was used to store weapons, according to the indictment.

Police Chief Angelo Vega allegedly bought bullet-proof vests and other body armor to be smuggled, participated in a cash pickup in Albuquerque, and twice called federal agents to try to intercede on behalf of a village councilman, Blas Gutierrez, according to the indictment. Mr. Gutierrez is also accused in the smuggling scheme.

It’s tempting to think that the corruption of police, government and military is something you find in other countries, but that our system is stronger, somehow immune.

This is just an example of some who were caught.

As long as the drug war makes the black market so obscenely profitable, there’s no way we can prevent this and other situations like it from proliferating.

Ending the drug war is essential to saving the integrity of government entities and our criminal justice system.

Via NORML Women’s Alliance

VIA MPP

The Republic

Federal agents with guns drawn raided up to a dozen medical marijuana operations across Montana on Monday, the same day that a bill to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law stalled in a Senate committee.

Coincidence or political?

Montana NORML is live blogging updates on the raids.