war against drugs

[hauke]

it costs about 1000 times as much to destroy a farmers crop, opium coca leafes
then the fartmer earnes of opium coca leafes.

just pay the farmers not to grow coca and opium 10 times what they earn growing , makes the war 100 times cheaper

pay the guy in afghanistan 10 times what he earnes of opium not to grow opium + he earnes what he grows else, like food

pay the columbian farmer 10 times as much not to grow coca + what he earnes of growing food instead

and its a lot cheaper then sending helicopters and bombers and chemical warfare

 

[toomuchtime_]

it costs about 1000 times as much to destroy a farmers crop, opium coca leafes
then the fartmer earnes of opium coca leafes.

just pay the farmers not to grow coca and opium 10 times what they earn growing , makes the war 100 times cheaper

pay the guy in afghanistan 10 times what he earnes of opium not to grow opium + he earnes what he grows else, like food

pay the columbian farmer 10 times as much not to grow coca + what he earnes of growing food instead

and its a lot cheaper then sending helicopters and bombers and chemical warfare

Won't that persuade more farmers to start growing opium to be paid ten times as much to stop?

 

[TNHarley]

Or we could do the common sense thing and just legalize it.

 

[BlindBoo]

It's not a war on drugs it's a war on people. It is the fastest way to a police state. They are commodities that should be legal, taxed and regulated.

 

[hauke]

not they don t grow they just say they grow then they get payed


of course it would be better to legalize regulate and tax

but an efficent war against drugs would work better with paying farmers not to grow

its cheaper and a lot less dead people

just pay farmers

 

[toomuchtime_]

not they don t grow they just say they grow then they get payed


of course it would be better to legalize regulate and tax

but an efficent war against drugs would work better with paying farmers not to grow

its cheaper and a lot less dead people

Legalize, regulate and tax, and that does seem to be the direction the country is taking state by state.

 

[hauke]

the 4 billion dollars in collumbia

would pay all coca farmers 10 times more then they earn farming coca, but i guess the american people rather pay for weapons

 

[hauke]

i belive

that about 95%of the us marinecorps would be willing to sit in a columbian farmers plot, if the marines get a chance to kill a collumbian drug dealer.

for 2-4 years until the columbian coca trade is destroyed, the marines will protect farmers from drug dealers

the usa got about 80 000 marines(real marines) thats enough

theres no war today

get out of afghanistan, and theres not many left there

of course the politican goto order the marines to protect the farmers, and the politicians goto know thats for the next 20 years, 1 generation at least

 

[waltky]

Army gonna lend border patrol a hand...

Army Training May Help Thwart Drug Flow in Southwest US
Oct 05, 2016 | The Department of Homeland Security seeks to combat any number of threats, from lone wolf terrorism and installation defense to infectious disease and cyber intrusions. But the threat most discussed during a panel at this week's Association of the United States Army annual conference in Washington, D.C., was the war on drugs.

Col. Mike Adams, director of operations, plans and training for Joint Task Force-North at U.S. Northern Command, said officials are looking at ways to leverage military training along the U.S.-Mexico border to help stem the narcotics flow. A memo signed by former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel encourages the services to conduct "training along the southwest border and provides incidental support to law enforcement," Adams said. Despite an associated funding stream, the many authorities involved created "very detailed challenges associated with that," he added. Adams was one of several officials who participated in the forum. Others included Brig. Gen. James Blackburn Jr., deputy commanding general of operations, U.S. Army North; Col. Celestino Perez Jr., deputy chief of staff for plans for U.S. Army North; Chief E. Erik Moncayo, operations section, Joint Task Force-West, Department of Homeland Security; Chief Jesse Shaw, U.S. Border Patrol; and retired Navy Rear Adm. Donald Loren, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, Homeland Security Integration.

While the task force already complements federal law enforcement agencies in counter-drug and countering transnational criminal organizations' activities, it's considering ways to train multiple agencies together, similar to what the Air Force is doing in Southern Command. Last month, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the service is looking for ways to use more assets in the Southern Command region that would be "of training benefit to our forces, but also contributing to counter drug and counter transnational crime commission." For some, the training boost can't some soon enough.

A U.S. Border Patrol Field Operations Supervisor, coordinates with Capt. Scott Young, commander from the 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas​

Some audience members expressed concern for the increase in drug use across the U.S., especially the rising heroin epidemic. "What we've learned is … you can't force your way on an issue like drugs," Moncayo said. "There's only so much you can do when it comes to seizure, and seizures and interdictions. You have to address the root cause, and sometimes it's a socioeconomic issue, other times it's organizations embedded in foreign countries. And that's where we need those partnerships." Moncayo said once drug smugglers hit the border, it's pretty much too late. "We have to degrade [the drug] networks in order to make a genuine impact." Blackburn added, "We don't have a clue how much is coming across the border, how much is coming North, South, East, West. Which makes those seizures, while important, a meaningless major effectiveness because you don't know of what."

The general said the price of some drugs, such as heroin, is going down, "and the quantity is going up." Blackburn earlier in the panel joked that the problems the U.S. faces at the border will soon be put to bed once there is "a wall" -- a dig at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's aspiration to build a wall along the border to keep out illegal immigrants. But his comments sparked a question from an audience member, a retired Army colonel who didn't disclose his name, but said he served as a mayor of a small town of 16,000 residents in a country struggling to cope with rising heroin overdoses and illegal immigration. "We don't have the money to pay for" these problems, he said, so my plea "to you is whatever it takes: Stop it. We can argue about whether it's demand-driven, but we know where it comes from."

Army Training May Help Thwart Drug Flow in Southwest US | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Japanese police intercept Taiwan drug shipment...

Police uncover drug smuggling operation
Sun, Oct 09, 2016 - COOPERATION: Japanese police found 50kg of amphetamines with an estimated street value of NT$1.07 billion in 25 hollow metal cylinders in a shipment from Taiwan

Investigators yesterday announced that they had uncovered an international smuggling operation that attempted to ship illegal drugs from Taiwan to Japan and recovered 50kg of amphetamines with an estimated street value of NT$1.07 billion (US$34 million) hidden inside a container. Officials of the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau detailed the operation, which they attributed to successful cooperation between law enforcement agencies in Taiwan and Japan. Police detained a key suspect, 40-year-old Lin Ching-hung, who investigators said was involved in scrap metal salvaging and trading.

Police said Lin linked up with international drug smugglers, who were reportedly connected to organized criminal syndicates, and planned to ship illegal drugs from Taiwan to Japan via container ship. Bureau officials said such drug smuggling operations are highly profitable for organized crime, as 1kg of amphetamines can be sold for about NT$200,000 in Taiwan, while the same amount would fetch more than 20 times that price in Japan.

A metal cylinder containing bags of amphetamine is displayed​

Authorities from both nations collaborated on surveillance, with bureau officers tracking a shipment of scrap metal from Lin that departed from the Port of Keelung on Aug. 21 and arrived in Yokohama, Japan, three days later, the bureau said. Japanese police searched Lin’s container and found 2kg pouches of amphetamines concealed inside 25 hollow metal cylinders, it added. Lin was not aware of the search conducted by Japanese police, and was under surveillance when he boarded a flight to Japan last month with an accomplice surnamed Yeh to collect the shipment, the bureau said.

According to bureau officials, following two days of surveillance Japanese police arrested Lin and Yeh in connection with the 50kg of smuggled amphetamines, which they estimated were worth about NT$1.07 billion. When questioned, Lin said he was unaware of the drugs, adding that he received the rods as scrap metal from Yeh, who promised to pay him for shipping the cargo to Japan. Yeh told police that he bought the rods for NT$3 million, but did not know their origin. Taiwanese and Japanese authorities said the investigation is ongoing to identify the operation’s ringleaders and the source of the illegal drugs.

Police uncover drug smuggling operation - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Argentina extradites Colombian drug lord to US...

Alleged Colombian drug kingpin extradited to the U.S. from Argentina
Nov. 17, 2016 -- Henry de Jesus Lopez Londono, an alleged Colombian drug lord known as Mi Sangre or My Blood, was extradited from Argentina to the United States on Thursday.

Lopez Londono, 45, is the suspected head of the notorious Urabenos gang, which operates in northern Colombia. He is wanted on drug-trafficking charges in Florida.

The BBC quoted Argentinian officials as saying Lopez Londono was surrounded by members of law enforcement when he was transported by helicopter from a prison near Buenos Aires -- where he has been since 2012 -- to an airport where he was put on a plane and flown to the United States.

Granny says, "Dat's right - he looks guilty as sin.​

Federal prosecutors claim Lopez Londono and his gang brought "huge amounts of cocaine" on boats from Colombia to Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States, La Prensa de Honduras reported.

The defendant's attorneys argued against extradition on the grounds that Londono's life would be in danger because he is a former member of a right-wing, paramilitary group.

Alleged Colombian drug kingpin extradited to the U.S. from Argentina

 

[FA_Q2]

You cannot pay people to not produce. That is silly.

The only thing that will cause is a long line of people taking handouts for eternity based on the threat that they will produce the product. You pay people to not produce something, the very next day I can start to produce it and ask for money to stop.

 

[waltky]

Mexico’s military is bogged down in a “war with no end in sight...

Drug ‘War With No End in Sight’ Puts Spotlight on Mexican Military
December 14, 2016 – Ten years after former Mexican President Felipe Calderon more than doubled the number of troops fighting Mexico’s drug cartels, supply routes to the U.S. “remain open,” and Mexico’s military is bogged down in a “war with no end in sight,” according to a report by a leading international risk consultancy.

Responding to a “massive market” for illegal drugs in the U.S., Mexico’s drug cartels now increasingly send domestically produced heroin and methamphetamine across the border, according to the report issued Tuesday by the Texas-based consultancy Stratfor. The report predicts that Mexico’s drug war, which analysts agree has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Mexicans in the past ten years, is now on course to “continue for decades.” And the Mexican government is not likely to give up its battle with the cartels because shutting off the flow of drugs is a “fundamental part of its relationship” with the U.S. government, the report notes. On a positive note, the report says that Mexico has seen limited success increasing security in Ciudad Juarez and parts of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

But it found little improvement in the security situation nationwide 10 years after Calderon sent 45,000 troops – double the numbers previously deployed – into the streets to fight the cartels and rising crime. Mexico’s government first turned to the military to fight the cartels to “replace corrupt local law enforcement officials,” according to the report author and Stratfor analyst Reggie Thompson. But as the military has been dragged into conflicts with the cartels, allegations of corruption and human rights violations against it have risen, and “this has become a bigger problem,” Thompson told CNSNews.com. In a report last June, U.S. and Mexican rights advocacy organizations accused both the Mexican military and the Zetas drug cartel of committing crimes against humanity over the past decade.

A masked Mexican soldier stands on guard in front of burning packages of marijuana in Tijuana​

In 2011, Mexican rights groups called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate Calderon for drug-war related killings by the military and the cartels. ICC prosecutors declined to take up the case. Some 12,400 human rights complaints have been formerly filed against the Mexican military in the past ten years. Humberto Guerrero, the human rights coordinator for the Mexican citizens’ justice group FUNDAR said that was proof that the “militarization” of the drug war isn’t working. “The numbers speak for themselves,” Guerrero said, claiming the war with the cartels in Mexico has left approximately 150,000 dead and led to 30,000 disappearances. “The argument by Calderon was that the military wasn’t corrupt, but it’s a false argument.”

Mexico’s Congress is now considering proposals that would make it easier for the government to use the military for purposes other than its constitutionally-defined responsibility to protect the country from outside threats. FUNDAR and more than a dozen other citizens groups have spoken out against the proposal, which Guerrero said amount to an end-run around the Constitution. He also said the current use of the military to fight the cartels doesn’t respect a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that said troops must be subject to civilian law. Mexico’s Interior Secretary Osorio Chong this week called for a new “legal framework” to allow the military to continue its role in internal security. “We have expressed the urgency of providing our armed forces with a legal framework to regulate the activities that they are already performing,” Chong said.

John Ackerman, a law professor at the national university UNAM and editor-in-chief of the Mexican Law Review, said the use of the military for public security is “illegal” and that the military is “highly vulnerable for having committed this gross violation of the Constitution for the past ten years.” The two proposals currently being considered by the Congress that would make it easier to use troops to fight crime, Ackerman said, would “legalize and make permanent the militarization of internal security.” “It would militarize law enforcement. Law enforcement is already militarized. It would make it permanent. It would give legal protection to the military.” Approving either of the proposals would result in the military being “permanently on the streets which is a bad idea,” Ackerman said. “We are in a de-facto state of emergency now without it being declared formally, which is why [the government] is pushing for this law.”

Drug ‘War With No End in Sight’ Puts Spotlight on Mexican Military

 

[whitehall]

According to recent stats it seems that Heroin abuse kills more people than gun violence and they just made an entry level drug legal in Mass and Maine. You can't even smoke a cigarette in New York City in public but they legalize marijuana in Mass and Maine. What were they thinking?

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Trump needs to take names an' kick butts...

Judicial Watch: Trump Needs to ‘Clean House’ & Fire Corrupt Officials Who Aid Mexican Drug Cartels
December 15, 2016 – To combat the nation’s opioid epidemic, President-elect Donald Trump and Attorney General-nominee Jeff Sessions need to “clean house” and fire corrupt U.S. government officials who knowingly allow Mexican drug cartels to smuggle vast quantities of heroin over the border, says Christopher Farrell, director of investigations and research at Judicial Watch.

These Mexican cartels “threaten more lives on a daily basis right now than any other foreign terrorist threat” including ISIS, Farrell said. “ISIS only dreams of exacting the human casualties the Mexican cartels achieve, despite decades of the ‘War on Drugs’,” the former military intelligence officer wrote in an op-ed for Fox News. On Tuesday, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides $1 billion to expand access to treatment and prevention of drug addiction. Last week, The Washington Post reported that the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that for the first time ever, more Americans died from heroin overdoses (12,989) in 2015 than from homicides involving firearms (12,979).

In September, New York's Organized Crime Task Force seized more than 33 kilograms of heroin (72 pounds) valued at $13 million, the largest drug bust in the unit's 46-year history. Officials said that "a sophisticated distribution ring" moved the drugs - which were laced with chicken anesthetic, nail polish remover and roach killer - from Mexico into Tucson, Arizona and then transported them as far north as Massachusetts. But Farrell says that “the dirty little secret” about the nation’s opioid epidemic is that it is “leveraged by corrupt public officials” who either turn a blind eye as the cartels smuggle truckloads of heroin into the U.S. or actively help them distribute their deadly product to every corner of the nation. “The incidence of opiate addiction and overdose and death has skyrocketed in the last eight to ten years. So much so that even in the last two to three years, we’ve seen a jump in overdose deaths of between 12,000 and 18,000 people a year,” he said, noting that the death toll was six times higher than the number of Americans killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Heroin use is not limited to low-income residents of the nation’s inner cities or barrios along the border, Farrell pointed out. “This is in every community in this country, every zipcode, regardless of race, creed, color, ethnic origin, level of education, Yale to jail, it doesn’t matter." Heroin has surpassed cocaine and methamphetamine as the top illegal drug of choice in the U.S. Breitbart reported that mobile drug dealers are now using the “pizza-delivery model” to deliver heroin directly to their customers’ homes and places of business. Heroin destined for the U.S. “starts out in the poppy fields in the southwest corner of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which is run principally by the Sinaloa cartel,” Farrell explained. “Those drugs come across our border into the United States at a massive rate and scale. And the only reason they get across that border is because of corruption in law enforcement. And it happens at the municipal level, the state level and the federal level,” he continued.

On Wednesday, Sgt. Julian Prezas, an Army recruiter in San Antonio, Texas pleaded guilty to having three servicemen act as “straw buyers” to purchase dozens of assault rifles for the Gulf Cartel. All three soldiers pleaded guilty to making false statements on federal firearms forms. “There’s such a high degree of corruption in law enforcement and among politicians and other public officials that this war on drugs we’re fighting is really against ourselves,” Farrell said. He added that the Mexican drug cartels’ business model is so sophisticated that they have brought in advisers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq to not only share their expertise on poppy cultivation, but also to train members of the cartels on how to shoot down Mexican Army helicopters. “None of this is news to people in law enforcement, or the intelligence world, or the armed forces. Even the diplomatic community. None of what I’m saying is news. They all know this,” Farrell said. “They know it in the form of the El Paso Intelligence Center or EPIC in the far western corner of Texas next to New Mexico,” he continued. “All the intelligence agencies are there. And all this drug trafficking goes on right under their nose, literally. “El Paso has been a smuggling city for a couple hundred years. It’s literally El Paso de Norte, the way north, the passage north. And El Paso is a place where literally tractor-trailer loads of heroin enter the United States, and their distribution network is frighteningly effective,” Farrell said.

Judicial Watch: Trump Needs to ‘Clean House’ & Fire Corrupt Officials Who Aid Mexican Drug Cartels

 

[Dschrute3]

Not our countries, not our business. Now if those countries wanna do that themselves, that's their call. The reality is, Americans and Europeans especially, love to get high. If they didn't wanna get high so much, those countries couldn't sell their stuff. So the problem is with nations that have millions of citizens who like to get high. Poor folks in 3rd World countries shouldn't get punished for that.

However, i don't feel it's a 'problem.' Humans love getting high and drunk. It's been that way for a long long time. And most are doing it 'legally', by way of alcohol and prescription drugs. Pharmaceuticals have gotten filthy rich off keeping people hooked on drugs. So just decriminalize most drugs and declare an end to the 'War on Drugs.' The People are gonna get high and drunk regardless. War is senseless. Let's move on.

 

[Moonglow]

not they don t grow they just say they grow then they get payed


of course it would be better to legalize regulate and tax

but an efficent war against drugs would work better with paying farmers not to grow

its cheaper and a lot less dead people

just pay farmers

They have been doing that for several years now...

 

[Moonglow]

i belive

that about 95%of the us marinecorps would be willing to sit in a columbian farmers plot, if the marines get a chance to kill a collumbian drug dealer.

for 2-4 years until the columbian coca trade is destroyed, the marines will protect farmers from drug dealers

the usa got about 80 000 marines(real marines) thats enough

theres no war today

get out of afghanistan, and theres not many left there

of course the politican goto order the marines to protect the farmers, and the politicians goto know thats for the next 20 years, 1 generation at least

Bolivia legalized coca and allow farmers to grow coca..Columbia is thinking about doing the same...

 

[tycho1572]

I'm good with pot/weed being legalized. I say that because I don't believe it's a 'gateway' drug.

That said; I've seen kids die from heroin and other drugs. I've seen the pain families experience.
I've also had to physically subdue patients brought into our ER because they couldn't control themselves.

Heroin, IMO, is the single biggest drug problem in this country.

 

[Dschrute3]

i belive

that about 95%of the us marinecorps would be willing to sit in a columbian farmers plot, if the marines get a chance to kill a collumbian drug dealer.

for 2-4 years until the columbian coca trade is destroyed, the marines will protect farmers from drug dealers

the usa got about 80 000 marines(real marines) thats enough

theres no war today

get out of afghanistan, and theres not many left there

of course the politican goto order the marines to protect the farmers, and the politicians goto know thats for the next 20 years, 1 generation at least

Bolivia legalized coca and allow farmers to grow coca..Columbia is thinking about doing the same...

Wise move. If people didn't wanna get high, these countries would stop producing. It's mostly Americans and Europeans who love getting high. They consume most of the world's narcotics. These poor 3rd World countries shouldn't be punished because America and Europe have massive drug-fiend populations. They're just trying to survive.

If they wanna conduct a legit 'War on Drugs', they should go after the mega pharmaceuticals that have much of the world hooked on prescription drugs. I think the 'War on Drugs' is a huge failure. It's time to decriminalize most drugs and declare an end to the war. Let the People get high.