To illustrate, consider the latest news reports on the subject:
- According to an Associated Press report from December 31, 2011, the powerful Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel is expanding its reach from Mexico into Guatemala in the illegal methamphetamine market. Consider the numbers behind the drive to expand drug cartel meth production to labs in Guatemala:
- Mexican authorities seized 675 tons of a key chemical used in meth production just in December alone. While the 675 tons sounds like a lot, imagine how much of the chemical was not seized and how many meth hits could be produced by what is probably much more than 675 tons.
- All of the 675 tons was heading towards the cartel's labs in Guatemala where that government seized over 7,800 barrels of other meth chemical precursors throughout all of 2011. This is the equivalent of about 1,600 tons.
- In all of 2011, the Mexican authorities seized 1,200 tons of meth chemicals.
- Thus, according to the article, the total amount of chemicals seized within or heading to Guatemala could theoretically produce more than a billion one-gram doses of pure meth, and billions more if cut to street-level purity.
- A January 8, 2012 Associated Press article reported that a Mexican city worker had been gunned down by suspected drug cartel gunmen. The worker was also a part time journalist who wrote articles for the local newspaper. This comes on the heels of nine other Mexican journalists who had been assassinated in 2011.
Imagine the outrage that would have occurred if nine American journalists had been killed by drug cartel gunmen just for doing their job. Democracy suffers considerably when a free press fears for its life from criminal and drug cartel elements, which apparently is the current situation in Mexico.
- Moving on to another large Mexican drug cartel, in a January 8, 2012 Associated Press article, Mexican police reportedly captured an alleged member of the Zetas drug cartel who is considered the planner behind a casino fire that killed 52 people in the northern city of Monterrey last August. The theory behind the arson crime is that the owner of the casino had refused to pay protection money to the Zeta cartel.
Just another way for ordinary Mexican citizens to worry about whether or not they will get killed by cartel activity going about their daily lives. Over 50 citizens died in the fire for just having a good time at the local casino that the Zetas decided needed to be destroyed. They had nothing to do with drug cartels, they were just relaxing. Imagine the outrage if a Vegas casino or the local bowling alley in your home town had been torched and 50 Americans killed for doing nothing.
- The same article reported that since the Mexican Federal government launched a focused effort to wipe out the cartels several years ago, probably 45,000 Mexicans had died as a result of the conflict between the government and the cartels and between the cartels themselves.
What if all of the residents of Coral Cables. Florida had been murdered? What if all of the residents of Binghamton, New York had been murdered? What if all the residents in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state capital, had been murdered? What if the same thing happened in the state capitals of Missouri, New Hampshire, and Washington state, all of the residents of their state capitals had been murdered?
All of these U.S. towns and cities have about 45,000 residents. Imagine the reaction and horror we would have had if the Americans in these towns had been wiped out as a result of our lost war on drugs like what had happened in Mexico. We would be demanding the Federal government take immediate action. The fact that the drug problem in this country causes 45,000 Mexicans to die, and not Americans, results in hardly a a rise.
Looks like nothing has improved since the last time we reviewed this situation. The cartels are extending their reach into other countries. They have gotten so large and powerful that they are transporting thousands of tons of chemicals around the world as if they were a multinational corporation. The cartels' violence has threatened democracy through the intimidation of journalists. Ordinary citizens go about their lives newer knowing when their paths will tragically cross the violence of the cartels. The equivalent of well known American towns and cities are wiped out for no reason.
And let's face it. A lot of this chaos is a result of the cartels feeding a huge demand for illegal drugs in the United States. And that demand for drugs that are produced from far away is the result of our decades long failure of the war on drugs. And that situation is unlikely to change at least for another year. In an election year, no politician, from Obama on down, is going to take any risks on re-examining our approach to illegal drugs. Thus, at least another year will go by where democracy declines, innocents are killed, and the drug cartels' reach and power expand.
Which is sad because Step 26 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" suggests a process to take a totally new, ground zero approach to examining all facets of the drug plague and deciding what to do about this dire situation. All it requires is a little leadership and courage from our political class to move us off of this obviously losing strategy.
Consider what is at stake: loss of democracy via the intimidation of journalists, loss of national sovereignty when criminal enterprises threaten legitimate governments, innocents being killed, Americans suffering the consequences of addiction. Sounds like a worthy cause for our leaders to undertake. Unfortunately, there are U.S. elections to be won which means freedom, sovereignty, killings and addictions will need to wait at least another year, given the selfish history of our politicians.
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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