Yet the culture of violence it created will remain.
Which is a good argument for immediate across the board legalization. The recovery is going to be a very long process. Unfortunately I doubt that will happen. Even the idea of marijuana legalization is scoffed at by a city (Washington DC) which is fueled by the very cocaine and pills it purports to abhor.
I would propose creating an open database dedicated to tracking individuals known or believed to be associated with violent drug cartels. Perhaps call it a crowd sourced intelligence network.
Knowing that a government official being anonymously accused of being corrupt recently went on vacation in a foreign country and stayed at a 5 star hotel would go a long way in validating suspicions when combined with other data points, such as their relatives purchasing large quantities of real estate.
Presumably no cartel member or corrupt official operates with complete anonymity. When hundreds of individuals are able to combine their reports together, the "social network" of a criminal organization should be completely visible to all.
While I strongly advocate individual anonymity and privacy rights, anyone who explicitly infringes and impedes the rights of others has no rights.
This is a guerrilla war which can only be won by its own victims.
So here is an intersting conundrum, if you look at the distribution of money in the illegal drug business vs the legal drug business, the illegal side provides more jobs for people that the legal drug business won't hire. Ex-felons in general are a case which was recently called out in Richmond California.
Economics aside though, if you use the end of prohibition as an example of what might happen, you might over estimate the speed of commercialization. This is because prior to prohibition there was a thriving liquor business, and that business simply returned (within one generation so people who had run legal liquor stores before where around to run them again). This situation does not exist for drugs, medical pot clubs not withstanding.
The drug lords have invested a bunch of money setting up smuggling networks and equipping mini-armies. Legalize drugs and they'll just switch to smuggling something else.
I agree drugs should be legalized, but it's because I don't like the government telling me what I can do.
That's a useless oversimplification of the problem. Such immediate solutions have enormous pitfalls.
For example, in Europe, cocaine got significantly cheaper and rather easy to find. This led to a a considerable increase of its popularity during the last three years or so. Cocaine is starting to take 'market' from cannabis based drugs which are much less dangerous and carry much softer consequences.
'Legalize drugs' is a too naive statement, the drug situation needs to be carefully analysed and adequate solutions need to be put in practice based on as much factors as possible.
That said, generally, in developed countries I think consumption decriminalization is a positive thing at present time. It makes room for advances in thins like hygiene, medical treatment of addicts, etc. without creating easier access to drugs.
It looks like the author at RRW didn't read the article well.
Rascatripas was not hung from the infamous overpass. His body was dumped in town at the base of a statue where other bodies have been dumped in the past.
The past tense of "to hang" when referring to a human being (as in "by the neck until dead") is "hanged" - i.e. "Rascatripas was not hanged from the infamous overpass."
Is there no options but an uncorrupted and highly trained military unit to start marching and cracking down on the cartel? What if the cartel members hide? Or will they fight?
The cartel is largely run by highly trained elite ex-military. One unexplored option is to acknowledge that drugs are a medical and social problem and not something for the police, or God forbid, the military to solve. Legalize drugs and allow them to be distributed through reasonable channels with medical supervision if necessary. It's worked wherever it's been tried.
What I don't get is how come there are no such violence problems with drug cartels in the United States where surely they must be as large if not larger since the drugs get somehow distributed there (I'm assuming there's where most drugs handled by Mexican cartels end up).
The US police/government/courts are less corrupt and have more resources to crack down on the more visible violence.
There is more violence in America than most people realize. It's considered mundane so you don't see it in the news as much.
The US is selling arms to the cartels in Mexico, so their violence is escalated there.
Mexican cartels aren't larger in the US than in Mexico because their supply sources are in Mexico, they lose momentum over distance and face domestic competition as they move across the US.
Associated or unassociated with the press, this "blogger" body comes from somewhere. Corruption is simply a fact of life in Mexico.
The most effective conduit of corruption anywhere is complacency, and lack of inherent disgust.
Traveling a few hrs through some neighboring (Mexican) states?
Then carry a few extra fifties so that you can minimize the average time spent pulled over on your trip.
That didn't sound repulsive to my little ears, it was simply how things worked.
I learned that bit of travel advice from listening in on the adult dinner table at about the same time I learned to ride a bicycle in that very same city (Nevo Laredo).
[+] [-] orbenn|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AJ007|14 years ago|reply
Which is a good argument for immediate across the board legalization. The recovery is going to be a very long process. Unfortunately I doubt that will happen. Even the idea of marijuana legalization is scoffed at by a city (Washington DC) which is fueled by the very cocaine and pills it purports to abhor.
I would propose creating an open database dedicated to tracking individuals known or believed to be associated with violent drug cartels. Perhaps call it a crowd sourced intelligence network.
Knowing that a government official being anonymously accused of being corrupt recently went on vacation in a foreign country and stayed at a 5 star hotel would go a long way in validating suspicions when combined with other data points, such as their relatives purchasing large quantities of real estate.
Presumably no cartel member or corrupt official operates with complete anonymity. When hundreds of individuals are able to combine their reports together, the "social network" of a criminal organization should be completely visible to all.
While I strongly advocate individual anonymity and privacy rights, anyone who explicitly infringes and impedes the rights of others has no rights.
This is a guerrilla war which can only be won by its own victims.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|14 years ago|reply
Economics aside though, if you use the end of prohibition as an example of what might happen, you might over estimate the speed of commercialization. This is because prior to prohibition there was a thriving liquor business, and that business simply returned (within one generation so people who had run legal liquor stores before where around to run them again). This situation does not exist for drugs, medical pot clubs not withstanding.
[+] [-] orblivion|14 years ago|reply
EDIT: Or Arizona or Texas, I guess would be the more relevant point.
[+] [-] ceol|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tichy|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jlarocco|14 years ago|reply
The drug lords have invested a bunch of money setting up smuggling networks and equipping mini-armies. Legalize drugs and they'll just switch to smuggling something else.
I agree drugs should be legalized, but it's because I don't like the government telling me what I can do.
[+] [-] dhughes|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skeptical|14 years ago|reply
For example, in Europe, cocaine got significantly cheaper and rather easy to find. This led to a a considerable increase of its popularity during the last three years or so. Cocaine is starting to take 'market' from cannabis based drugs which are much less dangerous and carry much softer consequences.
'Legalize drugs' is a too naive statement, the drug situation needs to be carefully analysed and adequate solutions need to be put in practice based on as much factors as possible.
That said, generally, in developed countries I think consumption decriminalization is a positive thing at present time. It makes room for advances in thins like hygiene, medical treatment of addicts, etc. without creating easier access to drugs.
[+] [-] runjake|14 years ago|reply
The actual article is located at http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Blogger-murd...
[+] [-] sneak|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kiba|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GiraffeNecktie|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colanderman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brown9-2|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r0s|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jsf|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orbenn|14 years ago|reply
There is more violence in America than most people realize. It's considered mundane so you don't see it in the news as much.
The US is selling arms to the cartels in Mexico, so their violence is escalated there.
Mexican cartels aren't larger in the US than in Mexico because their supply sources are in Mexico, they lose momentum over distance and face domestic competition as they move across the US.
[+] [-] ascentofstan|14 years ago|reply
That didn't sound repulsive to my little ears, it was simply how things worked. I learned that bit of travel advice from listening in on the adult dinner table at about the same time I learned to ride a bicycle in that very same city (Nevo Laredo).
[+] [-] grandalf|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maeon3|14 years ago|reply