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Mexico is now in total collapse and near civil war. The drug cartels are no longer 2nd rate street gangs but small armies able to do anything, anywhere and anytime. The Mexican Army cannot stop or contain them and is getting weaker by the day. Now the drug armies are stealing whole warehouses of Central American countries military weapons and supplies. This is a direct threat to America and is in my opinion a red alert! IF these drug armies can topple the regime currently in Mexico City and then invites in freely its friends like Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaida ect. and the Red Chinese and Russians well Red Dawn WILL explode for real. We need those American troops guarding the Iraqi/Iranian border on our Southern border! We got some serious fighting going on right now ON the Texas/Mexican border and over the last 2 years 35,000 have died there.
Great idea! Let's start a fourth war by invading Mexico! God knows our limited number of troops don't have enough to do!
How about this instead? Let's legalize drugs here, immediately putting the cartels out of business. Everything going on in Mexico is fueled by our instatiable thirst for drugs. WE are the problem and WE are the solution.
I did NOT say invade the place but to defend our OPEN border. I disagree on legalizing drugs, which drugs or all of them? Thats truly insane, thats what they want is millions more Americans running around high and useless. Who do you think will grow and manufacture these drugs for the Gov't IF it were legalized? Likely the current drug bosses will who now control the illegal trade. The drug "war" has never really been fought and was a scam to wear down the American people into legalizing it instead.
How about this instead? Let's legalize drugs here, immediately putting the cartels out of business. Everything going on in Mexico is fueled by our instatiable thirst for drugs. WE are the problem and WE are the solution.
I actually agree on legalizing at least some drugs in the United States... heavily regulated.
But, it's not "America" that is the problem causing Mexico to be in chaos. It's an ineffective Mexican government that spends more energy trying to push its destitute into America than in making a better life for the people WITHIN its own borders.
It's an ineffective Mexican police and army. After all, the United States doesn't have near the scope of drug related deaths and violence as Mexico, and we have enough arable land to supply our people with all the drugs we could need or want. The difference? A police system that is effective and keeps people from attempting to grow the sort of drug cartels that exist SOB.
I did NOT say invade the place but to defend our OPEN border. I disagree on legalizing drugs, which drugs or all of them? Thats truly insane, thats what they want is millions more Americans running around high and useless. Who do you think will grow and manufacture these drugs for the Gov't IF it were legalized? Likely the current drug bosses will who now control the illegal trade. The drug "war" has never really been fought and was a scam to wear down the American people into legalizing it instead.
You do realize, don't you, that we have something like 14,000 miles of border to defend, excluding Alaska and Hawaii? We don't have enough troops to seal that and never will have. The idea of closing the border to drugs or illegals is a chimera, a phantom. Even if we got lucky and managed to close the southern border, they'd just shift their operations to Canada or our immense coastlines. Not only that, but all the police and military resources shifted to border control would no longer be available for other purposes, leaving us all vulnerable.
It's a non-starter.
We've spent over a trillion dollars fighting the "drug war" and all we've gotten for our trouble is prisons full of non-violent drug offenders (at an average $30,000 per year to keep there), a massive increase in police, prosecutor and court employees, a serious curtailment of our Constitutional rights and privileges in the name of fighting that "war," and no reduction in drug use. Not only that, but by trying to stop it, we've empowered the very cartels you're worried about!
Add in the health care costs related to treatment for using impure or adulterated drugs, and you can easily see that legalizing drugs, and pardoning those non-violent offenders, would achieve a substantial cost reduction, easing the deficit. And, that's not even including income derived from taxing it. Nor, does that consider the cost of drug-related crimes, such as theft and murder.
So, you're worried that people may flock to drugs when they're made legal? Maybe. There's no way to tell how many people aren't using them now because they're illegal, but among my friends and acquaintences, illegality has nothing to do with it. Those who want to use them do. Those who don't, don't.
And, so what if the current illegal cartels suddenly become legitimate businessmen? Coming out into the open and conducting a legal business would virtually end the killing and stop any cross border violence? Isn't that what you're worried about?
Others say they don't want people high on drugs driving around with them or working alongside them. I've got news for everyone: they're there now, beside you on the freeway, working at the next cubicle and standing in line behind you in the check out line. You just don't know it.
I can't see legalizing drugs as anything but a win/win for us all.
I actually agree on legalizing at least some drugs in the United States... heavily regulated.
But, it's not "America" that is the problem causing Mexico to be in chaos. It's an ineffective Mexican government that spends more energy trying to push its destitute into America than in making a better life for the people WITHIN its own borders.
It's an ineffective Mexican police and army. After all, the United States doesn't have near the scope of drug related deaths and violence as Mexico, and we have enough arable land to supply our people with all the drugs we could need or want. The difference? A police system that is effective and keeps people from attempting to grow the sort of drug cartels that exist SOB.
So, it's Mexico's fault that they can't keep us from getting the drugs we want? Why is it Mexico's responsibility to stop our drug users from creating a market for the stuff?
That's sort of like Mattel saying it's the governments fault for not catching the tainted toys they were selling.
So, it's Mexico's fault that they can't keep us from getting the drugs we want? Why is it Mexico's responsibility to stop our drug users from creating a market for the stuff?
That's sort of like Mattel saying it's the governments fault for not catching the tainted toys they were selling.
Yes, actually. It IS the government's job.
Let's try this again:
Mexico is the "producer" of drugs for the United States because the United States, unlike Mexico, has a police state that is good enough to discourage and stop domestic production. So the production goes somewhere else where the government is ineffective and impotent to stop the production.
There is nothing about the climate of Mexico that isn't replicated SOMEWHERE in the United States.
"A 2009 United Nations report estimated 1.7 million Mexicans, or about 2.4 percent of the population, use cocaine. In comparison with the US, where an estimated 88 tons of cocaine are consumed annually, Mexico, with about one-third of the population as its northern neighbor, consumes an estimated 27.65 tons of the drug every year. If the UN's numbers are fairly accurate, Mexico is rapidly catching up to the US as a leading consumer of cocaine.
In other annual indices of hard drug use, Mexicans reportedly consume 3.9 tons of heroin and 4.2 tons of amphetamines and Ecstasy. At the same time, more than three million Mexicans, or about 4.2 percent of the population, are users of marijuana."
Mexico is not a third world country. It is one of the largest economies of the world, with some of the richest people in the world.
I appreciate your opinions but the OP is about the Mexican border, the war thats spinning out of control there and our security NOT a lets make drugs legal argument, NOT about Canada or Hawaii. I am very alarmed by the Southern border and the fact that nil is being done to secure that border. We do have the capabilty to secure that border IF we want to there are no excuses. We have regular Mexican military now openly and freely crossing our border and threatening and shooting at our Border Patrol and NG who have orders to "evade do not engage". The unarmed NG is being withdrawn this Summer. The Gov't admits under pressure only 129 miles of the Southern border is secure. We have over 200,000 troops in Afganistan/Iraq - I say they have a greater duty here and the Texas-Mexico border is where they belong protecting America.
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Drugs were legal in this country up until the 1920's. The moment you made them illegal, then the underground became filthy rich. Take away their income and let's make them very fallible. Besides, if it is legal, that does not mean that people will now get in line to start shooting up or popping pills. Those people are already doing it. I've never met anyone who said "I'm not smoking pot - it's illegal" (and I've been in bands for over 25 years). So let's make it legal (and stop giving the drug lords a big paycheck), let's regulate it, and let's bring our troops home and have them take position on the borders to make sure they (drug lords) don't get stupid. If they do, then Mexico can become the new Pakistan (complete with our drones flying their unfriendly skies) and we can take them out at our leisure. If Mexico don't like it - tough sh#t. Those drug lords (whether we "made" them or not) are a direct threat to the American people and should be handled with extreme prejudice.
Others say they don't want people high on drugs driving around with them or working alongside them. I've got news for everyone: they're there now, beside you on the freeway, working at the next cubicle and standing in line behind you in the check out line. You just don't know it.
Do you think this is OK, and thus should receive NO attention? Or, maybe be facilitated? And given this, would more be better?
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