Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

The Failed Drug War

i’ve always been a proponent of the use of marijuana for medical purposes.  i live in texas, lots of marijuana comes through here and texas is absolutely behind the drug war.  however, the policy of the USA has harmed and killed innocents in a country we share a border with.  a country where some of my ancestors arrived in texas from.  a country with a myriad of problems, poverty in particular.  a third world nation right in our backyard.

much of the murder, mayhem and failure is the fault of the USA’s attitude toward this particular illegal drug.  oh yes, there are other illegal drugs out there, some should never be used by anyone, but, the nature of humans is often to destroy themselves for the love of a substance.  that’s another diary altogether.  

we’ve lost, law enforcement agents, tourists, innocent citizens of mexico, mexican politicians, chiefs of police, and many people killed in this drug war will never be found to the grave sadness of their families.

the mexican drug lords are ecstatic about this war.  here, El Chapo, explains why:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…  i’ll quote some of it here, but, i don’t want to post the entire text, only enough to keep from crossing the “fair use” line:

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera reported head of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes’ yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion, today officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal. According to one of his closest confidants, he said, “I couldn’t have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you.”

Mexican President Calderon is at the point of beggin the US to work with him in order to help save his country from this ill conceived, ill controlled and absolutely stupid “war on drugs”.  mexico will, if at all possible” make these drugs legal in order to save themselves.  why?  because WE are killing them.  

i always felt it was wise to keep your national neighbors, particularly the shared bordered ones, with respect and honor. we have not done so.  we have treated Mexico as a “possession” as a nation we can maltreat with impunity, simply because we can.

this is inhuman, intolerable and stupid.  hopefully, at some point in time, we will either wise up, or, we will be forced to concede that our policies have been abject failures, the DEA is a fascist agency (you may know good and honorable DEA agents, in all my years of working with law enforcement i never met ONE of them).

marijuana has so many truly positive medicinal uses, it also has a problem, drug companies can’t figure out how to patent it, make it their own and make scads more profit than they already make by allowing a change in laws.  also, without this drug war, the DEA has no purpose.

it is heartening that some states have taken up the banner of medical legalization.  may we all soon join them and make this drug, which is highly misclassified and extremely useful one of the drugs in our arsenal of medical preparations that will benefit us all.  

may we STOP killing people in other countries because we can.

okay, end of rant, didn’t mean for it to go on so long.  thank you all for your patience.  

all thoughts are appreciated and respect of same is the order of the day.


13 comments

  1. Abra Crabcakeya

    roack bands with my stereo up REAL loud. spinal Tap dude had an amp that ent up to 11? MINE goes up to 20.

    :  > }

  2. LabWitch

    you have hearing protection … turn music down (tsula would thank you) or use the earprotectors.  

    btw, your pain would benefit highly, your meds would work better.  i only tell you this and will argue back because you’re definitely my absolute best friend!

  3. the funny thing is that she was one of the few of us who did not smoke for fun before she was paralyzed. After being shot in the neck and becoming quadraplegic – and suffering from the side effects of multiple ‘real’ medications – she started smoking pot and it has worked wonders.

    Of course now she is completely unproductive and a scourge on society. She can barely manage to be a journalist for the Toronto Star and run a massive charitible organization… ;~)

    The harm due to drug laws massively overshadows the harm due to drugs. There isn’t anyone who condones drug abuse, but when your approach to a problem exponentially multiplies the problem you pick a different one. I am sure I could kill the weeds in my yard for a day by napalming the entire neighborhood, but they’d just come back in larger numbers and the effects of the napalm might be worse for my gardening efforts than thistles…

  4. LabWitch

    you’re truly one of the only friends i have with whom i can discuss anything!

    give tsula some belly rubs from me!

    i’m going to work on my sockies and then nap.  going to have a totally unproductive day!

  5. slksfca

    In addition to the very serious consequences of drug abuse – few of which I believe are prevented by prohibition – it has also made of a significant percentage of the population law-breakers and, I believe, has eroded respect for ALL laws as a result. Weed should be legalized for both medicinal and recreational purposes, and regulated on a similar basis to alcohol.

  6. Irish Patti

    The prison industrial complex needs the drug war to continue, because prisoners have become profit centers for corporations.

    The drug war has failed by every metric. Prohibition doesn’t work and has never worked. I would like to see all drugs legalized, regulated and taxed as alcohol is currently.  

  7. bill d

    to just go ahead and buy all of the drugs rather than spend it on the War on Drugsā„¢.

    Your quote from the billionaire drug lord should sound somewhat familiar to you.

    Up here we still have dry counties(really) and every so often there is a ballot measure whether to legalize selling booze in the county or not.

    The largest monies poured in to keep counties dry are not from the churches but from the guys who own the liquor stores on the county lines.

    I am liking the pace of acceptance of a lot of things lately, some things though are past due to change.

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