NY Times: Remember the War on Drugs?

[Wetzelbill]

Editorial
Remember the War on Drugs?

It is good to see Mexico and the United States working together to battle the drug cartels that deliver hundreds of tons of illegal drugs to American consumers every year, killing more than 2,000 Mexicans annually along the way. Still, the Bush administration’s proposed $1.4 billion counternarcotics aid package falls far short of what is needed to confront the problem.

If Washington is serious about stopping the northward flow of cocaine, heroin and other drugs, it must begin an aggressive campaign to stop the southward flow of money and high-powered weapons that finance and arm the cartels. And there must be a far more serious effort to curb Americans’ use of illicit drugs.

Federal financing for drug prevention and treatment programs has been steadily declining since 2005. Yet so long as there is demand, the narcotics will always find a route, through Mexico or some other way.

There is not a lot of talk these days about the war on drugs, but the traffickers are more than holding their own. The National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that Andean cocaine arriving in Mexico for transshipment north jumped from 220 tons in 2000 to 380 tons in 2006. Mexican heroin production for the United States market went from 9 to 19 tons in the same time. In Mexico, defeat is measured in bodies: more than 2,000 last year and 1,100 in the first six months of 2007, including drug dealers, police officers, journalists and bystanders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/opinion/19mon2.html?ref=opinion

[quispquake]

1. As George Carlin says...

Nail the bankers that launder the drug money...have a public hanging of the bankers when they're convicted...You'll see the drug business go WAY down once this starts happening...

[Wetzelbill]

2. hahaha

yeah, that would put a stop to it pretty fast.

[Webster Green]

3. What a dumb-ass editorial..

Legalize it!

[Wetzelbill]

6. It is a little weird

that's for sure. I was wondering what others would say about it. When I read it, I immediately was wondering if it even had a point.

[flashl]

4. Have we forgotten Gary Webb's story? n/t

[Echo In Light]

5. A phony "war on drugs" requires more drugs to justify imprisoning...

Greater numbers of what's referred to as the "surplus" population. Just as the phony "war on terror" requires phantom enemies - with an eye toward the same economic segments of impoverished society, and eventually dissidents as well ... er, I mean, unpatriotic TERRORISTS! The prison indestroy is a major growth sector in brainwashed America.