Drug gangs in Mexico for the first time used a car bomb. It won't be the last time.
Ironically, my original script I was writing when the Gulf War started was about an international collaboration between South American drug gangs and a Mideast plot for a terror attack on the U.S.
It seems that the drug gangs are now taking a page from the Middle East violence - using a cell phone to set off a car bomb at the worst possible moment. This incident is a bad omen. It means that there will be more of these as the fight between the wealthy gangs and the government of Mexico continues - with the gangs with far greater intelligence, arms and money than the government.
There is a Newsweek article that suggest legalizing pot could hurt the cartels (remember Al Capone in the 1930's? Legalizing booze put him out of business, along with his failure to pay income taxes).
No one has ever died from marijuana - none, zip, zero. Here is a chart showing deaths in different categories in 2000:
Annual Causes of Death in the United States
| Tobacco | 435,0001 |
| Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity | 365,0001 |
| Alcohol | 85,000 1 |
| Microbial Agents | 75,0001 |
| Toxic Agents | 55,0001 |
| Motor Vehicle Crashes | 26,3471 |
| Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs | 32,0002 |
| Suicide | 30,6223 |
| Incidents Involving Firearms | 29,0001 |
| Homicide | 20,3084 |
| Sexual Behaviors | 20,0001 |
| All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect | 17,0001, 5 |
| Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin | 7,6006 |
| Marijuana | 07 |
So why not take it out of the cartels inventory and cut their profits 20-50% (the estimate profit they make from selling it)? TAX IT. Use it for medical purposes. Strip the cartels of a business and put it in the hands of legitimate business, like the pharmacies they have set up in California, New Mexico, etc.
President Nixon started this "Drug War" in the 1970's. It has been a total failure for over 40 years.
Insanity is defined as trying the same thing each time and expecting different results. Pumping more and more money and military equipment into the drug war has not made a difference. Putting people into prison for smoking a substance less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco is not making a difference.
The gangs are making over $100 billion/YEAR, which they use for importing American high powered weapons from American gun dealers to wage turf wars.
Now they are adopting Al Qaida techniques to maintain power. They've even begun assassinating candidates for high office. We have a situation as serious as Iraq right on our border, which stretches from Texas to California.
A lot of people think the biggest threat to us is from illegal immigrants. Most of those people are simply looking for work and opportunity they can't get in Mexico. They do jobs I don't see any American willing to do - nasty jobs like picking veggies or working in a meat plant. You want that job?
The real threat to us comes from the billionaire drug barons who have a fondness for beheading victims, assassinating political leaders and now -- car bombs. They do it with less concern than Al Capone had for lives of any kind. And they are doing on American soil as well as in Mexico.
We need a new course of action. Removing a profit center from the cartels would be a good start. Otherwise they will only continue to grow bigger, more violent and more dangerous. If by removing even one profit center from their world, we cut their profits --that is a good thing. It would also give us tax revenue source we never had and could really use right now. A pot tax would add billions in revenue to the State of California alone.
What if these drug lords get bored with buying American machine guns and acquire a nuclear weapon? They are already rich enough to built submarines (one was found recently being prepared in a remote jungle). Losing that sub will hardly dent their finances, or stop them from building more. You can do a lot with a $100 billion tax free dollars a year!
We need to take a different approach to win this "war" - or things will get worse. This first car bombing on our border should be a wake up call. An American consul officer was killed with her husband recently. No one is safe on either side of the border.
But I suspect that it will take an even worse attack by these thugs for us to change a losing strategy.
The Netherlands has coffee shops selling pot and their world did not end. The streets in Amsterdam are less violent than those here in Houston.
No comments:
Post a Comment