@legacy-fan said:

your examples are completely valid, but there is one problem with the analogy.

there is no dispute about what arsenic will do if youre exposed to it....yet, there is quite a bit of disparity between what the Fed (FDA) says and what people/independent researchers say. we know pot is good for some ailments, but the Fed would have you believe its as bad as coke.

thus, preying on the fears of those with no real knowledge of the subject.....tell them it'll lead to teenage pregnancy and a life of crime, the sheep will believe it.

i, on the other hand, know better.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/6299436.html

Mexican cartels infiltrate Houston

Recent arrests in a mistaken killing point to the perilous presence of gangs

The order was clear: Kill the guy in the Astros jersey.

But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away.

Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway.

His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the perilous presence of Mexican organized crime and how cartel violence has seeped into the city.

Arrests came in December when police and federal agents got a break in the 2006 shooting as they charted the relationship and rivalries between at least five cartel cells operating in Houston. A rogue’s gallery of about 100 names and mug shots taken at Texas jails and morgues offers a blueprint for Mexican organized crime.

Houston has long been a major staging ground for importing illegal drugs from Mexico and shipping them to the rest of the United States, but a recent Department of Justice report notes it is one of 230 cities where cartels maintain distribution networks and supply lines.

At Chilos, the real crime boss was sitting at another table, as were two spotters. The hitman waited in the parking lot for Perez to leave the restaurant.

“I just remember that guy coming up to us and he started shooting and shooting and shooting and never stopped,” said Norma Gonzalez, Perez’s widow. He was hit twice.

“I know they will pay for what they have done, maybe in the next life,” she said of Perez’s killers. “I don’t know what is going to happen to them in this life.”

This activity costs all of us taxpayers, Mexican hit squads, special task forces to investigate?

"civil war" is pretty much accurate, I think.

What a devasting result of politicians' greed and cowardice.

What is going on in Mexico? Texas says they will defend the border and wont wait on Obama to act.

Breaking News: Mexico revolting against tyranny not the cartels!

its a civil war according to this report.

@choco said:

I'm not sure I see what is wrong with this practice.... I know that eating arsenic will kill me, so I don't. I know that calling a black man an n-word will get me punched in the face, so I don't (not to mention a myriad of reasons I don't use the word). I know that exposing skin for extended periods of time when it's in the teens will get me frostbite, so I don't.

In fact, just as the "true stoner" is a rarer entity than many might anticipate, the "reefer madness" set is even less common. A lot of people just don't like the lack of control they feel when under it's influence (or by observing others under its influence), so they don't.

drugs are bad....cause the gov't told me. pot will kill your neighbor and rape your wife....

those that i talk with, that seem to have strong opinions against drug use, have never tried what they condemn. they base their beliefs from hearsay and propaganda....

AdaM said:

Agreed.

@pumpkin-eater said:

True 'stoners' are a lot more rare than you think. Most smokers are perfectly normal people and quite happy.

Abuse of alcohol, teen age pregnancies, gangs, illegal drugs, abuse of

prescription drugs, sloth, apathy...

in any society there are social anomalies to proper and self-edifying behavior

mz. said:

The only reason I ask is because what some "hyper-moral" people find to be social ills is nothing more that bigotry wrapped with a cute red bow.

But there is a line somewhere that seperates particular amounts of one's life spent getting high or drunk no?

At some point it becomes "immoral" even to you no?

WSS

The only reason I ask is because what some "hyper-moral" people find to be social ills is nothing more that bigotry wrapped with a cute red bow.

mz. said:

Social Ills..... well how about this Star Trek Freaks

@mr.-t said:

Come on, T. You cannot make a statement like this and not name those other "social ills." So I ask again for you to name them.

Numbers rival Mexican army

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/m...ers-in-cartels/

EXCLUSIVE:

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico

The U.S. Defense Department thinks Mexico's two most deadly drug cartels together have fielded more than 100,000 foot soldiers - an army that rivals Mexico's armed forces and threatens to turn the country into a narco-state.

"It's moving to crisis proportions," a senior U.S. defense official told The Washington Times. The official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of his work, said the cartels' "foot soldiers" are on a par with Mexico's army of about 130,000.

The disclosure underlines the enormity of the challenge Mexico and the United States face as they struggle to contain what is increasingly looking like a civil war or an insurgency along the U.S.-Mexico border. In the past year, about 7,000 people have died - more than 1,000 in January alone. The conflict has become increasingly brutal, with victims beheaded and bodies dissolved in vats of acid.

The death toll dwarfs that in Afghanistan, where about 200 fatalities, including 29 U.S. troops, were reported in the first two months of 2009. About 400 people, including 31 U.S. military personnel, died in Iraq during the same period.

The biggest and most violent combatants are the Sinaloa cartel, known by U.S. and Mexican federal law enforcement officials as the "Federation" or "Golden Triangle," and its main rival, "Los Zetas" or the Gulf Cartel, whose territory runs along the Laredo,Texas, borderlands.

The two cartels appear to be negotiating a truce or merger to defeat rivals and better withstand government pressure. U.S. officials say the consequences of such a pact would be grave.

"I think if they merge or decide to cooperate in a greater way, Mexico could potentially have a national security crisis," the defense official said. He said the two have amassed so many people and weapons that Mexican President Felipe Calderon is "fighting for his life" and "for the life of Mexico right now."

As a result, Mexico is behind only Pakistan and Iran as a top U.S. national security concern, ranking above Afghanistan and Iraq, the defense official added.

protect the children!

Thank you for reversing an inhumane policy established by the Clinton administration and continued by the Bush administration.

Given the experience you and other elected officials have had with illegal drugs and your willingness to challenge the status quo, now is the time to reconsider decades of prohibitionist drug policies that have succeeded only in massively increasing the toll of human misery, violence, and hypocrisy. As with alcohol prohibition, the drug war intensifies and exacerbates every negative outcome it is ostensibly designed to combat.

President Obama, do the right thing and end the war on drugs.

"Obama, You're No Stranger to the Bong" was written, performed, and edited by Paul Feine; special thanks to Alex Manning.

http://reason.com/blog/show/132010.html

@mr.-t said:

LOL, you think your son is NOT smoking weed because it's illegal? Come on your not that nieve?

@mr.-t said:

Name a few...

@pbj said:

Here is an article and video with Gates on the subject of sending military aid:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7918101.stm

I really think a big help would be to just legalize marijuana, I read an article earlier that said legalizing would cut the funds to the cartels in half. Does anyone think this could turn into some kind of 21st century Pancho Villa situation, with US troops chasing around the cartels around northern mexico?

We have enough other social ills in our country before we start to legalize another substance that can be abused we should take a look around at what is going on with our youth. What we have in Mexico (drug cartel)is Greed taking advantage of our youth sucking the life out of them.

Here is an article and video with Gates on the subject of sending military aid:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7918101.stm

I really think a big help would be to just legalize marijuana, I read an article earlier that said legalizing would cut the funds to the cartels in half. Does anyone think this could turn into some kind of 21st century Pancho Villa situation, with US troops chasing around the cartels around northern mexico?