Did Hillary ever smoke dope? We know her husband did, but didn’t inhale (yukyuk). I sure did, back in olden times, like a fair percentage of other Boomers (including La Hillary, I wouldn’t be surprised.). And a whole lot of it came from Mexico, when it didn’t come from Humboldt County, Morocco or points East. But I sure don’t feel responsible for the Mexican drug lords butchering people, even though our Secretary of State now says I should be.
I learned one thing long ago – don’t be an enabler. But that’s exactly what Hillary is being with her approach. Not that she is the first one. Mexico, which has had corrupt governments of the right and left for as long as I can remember, is not going to get better because of a sudden American mea culpa. Indeed, it may get worse. Indeed, if one were to follow the logic of Hillary’s pronouncement, the answer would be to legalize narcotics, just as we legalized alcohol to put an end to the gangsterism of Prohibition, most of it anyway.
But it wouldn’t do that in this case. Not for Mexico, anyway. That country – one of my favorite places to visit for most of my life – can only fix itself. In fact, the ability to blame the USA for everything has provided Mexican politicians and pundits an escape valve forever. What they need is a solid dose of Larry Elder, not Hillary Clinton. And Larry doesn’t have a show these days. Maybe he could be Ambassador to Mexico. [Great idea.-ed. I'll phone Obama. And while you're at it, I have a few others.]
It would be interesting to see what it would take for Mexico to clean itself up. It would take a lot of kahunas to take on endemic corruption and institutionalized organized crime.
Rule of law sure is a fragile thing. I’m starting to fear that the rule of men is starting to gain traction here too.
~2.71828183
Watch for President Obama to send a Cinco de Mayo video to Mexico promising a “Nuevo Comenzio” between our two countries.
since so many in the U.S. believe that we have no right to legislate, teach, or impose morals on others …. why do we then act surprised when some people decide it is ok to abuse drugs, guns, each other, etc?
How does Secretary Clinton expect to stop such activities if there is no way to decide what is right and what is wrong? After all, I am fairly sure she would say one man’s truth isn’t the same as another man’s truth …. and one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
So at what point will her world philosophy be consistent or at least consistently applied?
Its almost a shame, really, that pot or other -pssst, can not serve as a substitute for real unbridled ambition, that’s probably why Bill, and Hill weren’t pot heads at the time.
It’s amusing that CNN would ask if the United States was responsible in some way for the violence brought on by the drug cartels in Mexico.
It’s a silly question. Of course the United States is responsible. In fact Americans caused the problem!
For decades and decades, American users of illegal drugs have been subsidizing Mexican drug lords. Face it – if there weren’t many American drug users, there wouldn’t be much to talk about in the way of Mexican drug supply. Dealers and users will point to the gun industry and whine about where the guns are coming from, but where do they get the money to pay all of it?
Like it or not, Americans using illegal drugs are subsidizing the death and terror that’s occuring in Mexico today. And while they’re the first to dismiss the idea, well… you can’t take them seriously. After all, they’re on drugs.
So when are we going to realize that it’s a fountain pen that is needed… not more troops, more prisons, more funding, more ridiculous laws… in order to bring about an end to this madness?
Until we end this insane, so-called War on Drugs, and use that pen (which in this case is much mightier than any sword)to legalize and start treating drug abuse/addiction as the health issue it is, expect the violence to escalate, the profits in the black market to continuing rising and the product to go un taxed. (Taxing marijuana alone would help America get out of it’s current economic nightmare).
It’s high time (no pun intended) that we legalize marijuana (it should have never been made illegal to begin with and remains the safest, least toxic “street” drug in the world – aspirin kills more people each year) and strongly consider decriminalizing all the other drugs (although through treatment and/or health centers – not at the corner store).
For those of you reading this that just can’t wrap their heads around this idea or still cling desperately to the belief that the War on Drugs is winnable or at best better than nothing, I leave you with this sobering thought.
I have known these people (drug dealers) for nearly three decades of my life. They are, for the most part, scum bags and low lifes (although some have had very successful lives, raised families and pay their taxes). The one thing they all had in common, every last one of them, was a fear that one day their product would be legal or decriminalized. MANY of them gave money to organizations like D.A.R.E. and Partnership for a Drug Free America in order to keep their jobs. Some gave money to conservative, anti drug politicians, even people in the DEA I know have told me over the years that the last thing any drug dealer wants is for the law to change.
One law enforcement officer (off the record of course)told me that he viewed the supporters of the Drug War as unwitting supporters of the dealers and the violence itself. While well intentioned, these anti-drug warriors are really the best thing to happen to the dealers and the growers and the cartels.
Trust me – they laugh at you, they thank you, they thrive because of you.
I am NOT in any way asking you to accept drug abuse as a normal, everyday thing, nor am I trying to argue that drugs aren’t bad (they certainly are – especially tobacco and alcohol, the two biggest killers on the planet)… but it puzzles me when you are shocked by the violence and the crime that results as an obvious reaction to these ridiculous and self defeating laws… it’s time for a change and it needs to happen now.
You may not like the sound of it, but within a few years you will know that the War on Drugs, once it is ended, was one of the most terrible blunders of the 20th century.
Far more people have been killed, maimed, hurt and destroyed by the War on Drugs than the drugs themselves. I will go to my grave knowing that that is the truth.
I’ve seen it first hand.
-Rev-
It seems a little inconsistent to blame the drug problems in Mexico due to the demand of drugs in the US, and to blame the guns problems in Mexico due to the supply of guns in the US.
I can’t think of much I agree with Hillary about, but I do in this case. In fact, I thought Obama should have said something similar the other night when the subject came up in his press conference. I took plenty of drugs in my day, too (many decades ago.) But the fact is, American demand for pot, cocaine, meth and other drugs is a (the?) major contributing factor to countries like Columbia and Mexico becoming dangerous, near failed states. If buying apartheid-era products from South Africa enabled behavior in that country we thought was toxic, how is this different? And I think Obama could make a Nixon-to-China move by saying, I took some drugs in my youth, as i said in my book, but we have gotten way beyond whether it’s the state’s business to tell you what to take. we have a major role in creating these drug gangs all over the world. So next time you hip, liberated people light up a bowl or snort a line, think about the ruined lives, the ruins towns and villages, the orphans, the torture, the brutal killings. All for you, my friends, all for you. You people were oh-so-righteous about waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed in your name. But you have no problem having some guy tortured to death by the people who deliver your drugs? What are you people smoking?
We have no problem disgracing people who smoke cigarettes, drive automobiles, eat trans fats,or who don’t bend over backwards not to offend the highly sensitive. But, God forbid we should point out to the Wall Streeters, the Hollywood people, and everyone else that their drug appetite is killing countries and threatening our own security? Please.
For what it’s worth, I lean toward legalizing marijuana too—the harm abuse of it causes seems nowhere near the harm the drug war has caused to try to eradicate it. We can’t legalize the hard stuff, though. it hasn’t been successful where it’s been tried, and it ain’t gonna happen here. But we should be shaming those who take those drugs for what they are doing to innocent people in other countries.
The automatic weapons in Mexico aren’t coming from the U.S., unless law enforcement agencies are selling them out the back door. They aren’t legal here, remember? The heavy stuff has to be coming from elsewhere.