Drug WarRant

We’ve been talking about the drug cartels in Mexico, and one of the interesting things about this is how they are donating money to churches and communities — essentially cleaning up their image and capturing the heart and soul of the people, many of whom aren’t sure who else to trust.

It’s a powerful and pernicious tool.

Here’s another article showing how the cartel is spending money to help kids.

It has paid for batting helmets for a girls softball team. It has paid for a machine that helps fill water bottles for high school football players. And it has paid to send kids to an Atlanta Braves game.

All the way to Atlanta? Wow.

Wait.

My mistake. Turns out this article isn’t about Mexican cartels and the money they get from people voluntarily purchasing their product. No, this is about another out-of-control group that actually steals their money from people.

Tapping into money from drug seizures, Sheriff Jimmy Ashe has directed $10,588 since 2007 to sports programs, trophies, booster clubs and a high school chorus.

The sheriff often spent the money with no oversight. In one case he directed $3,000 to youth baseball teams – including one on which his son played.

Asset forfeiture is a particularly nasty business that leads to greed, corruption, and even death (see Donald Scott). One of the worst practices of asset forfeiture is giving a portion of the seized money to the law enforcement units responsible for the seizure. This provides perverse incentives and increases the likelihood of abuse.

And using it for self-promotion? That just makes it harder to break the cycle of corrupt practice, because now law enforcement has purchased the good will of the community.

Parents in Jackson County said Ashe’s decision on how to spend the money has made a difference.

“I think that Jimmy Ashe is great for doing that,” said Susie Fortner, a single mother of three. “If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know if we would have gone this far in sports.”

Click on the image for the larger version.

I see a lot of stories about Mexico come through my newsreader. It says a lot about how often I get stories of drug-war-related killings that now when I see headlines like “Six shot dead in Mexico Disco,” “Gunmen kill 13 high school students at party in Mexico.” etc. I rarely bother to even read the articles. They have sadly become… ordinary.

But I found interesting the juxtaposition of two articles this weekend. One in the Arizona Republic: Drug Cartels Tighten Grip; Mexico Becoming ‘Narco-State’

Some analysts are warning that Mexico is on the verge of becoming a “narco-state” like 1990s-era Colombia.

“We are approaching that red zone,” said Edgardo Buscaglia, an expert on organized crime at the Autonomous Technological University of Mexico. “There are pockets of ungovernability in the country, and they will expand.”

For the past decade, he said, parts of Mexico have been sliding toward the lawlessness that Colombia experienced, in which traffickers in league with left-wing rebels controlled small towns and large parts of the interior through drug-funded bribery and gun-barrel intimidation.

In the latest sign of the cartels’ grip, on Wednesday the National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon announced it was calling off primary elections in the northern state of Tamaulipas because drug traffickers had infiltrated politics.

It’s a fascinating article that goes into detail regarding the reach of the cartels, including ownership of legitimate business and provision of needed community support, not to mention the huge boost to the economy from their activity. And the drug war has not really made any dent in their power (it may have done the opposite).

Only three things could change the balance, said Ray Walser, an expert on Latin America at the conservative Heritage Foundation: a massive increase in U.S. drug aid, a large addiction-treatment program in the United States or the legalization of drugs in the United States.

None of these measures seems to be on the horizon, Walser said.

The other story, an AP piece running in dozens of media outlets today, is a little odd. Amid drug war, Mexico less deadly than decade ago

“What we hear is, ‘Oh the drug war! The dead people on the streets, and the policeman losing his head,'” said Tobias Schluter, 34, a civil engineer from Berlin having a beer at a cafe behind Mexico City’s 16th-century cathedral. “But we don’t see it. We haven’t heard a gunshot or anything.” […]

“In terms of security, we are like those women who aren’t overweight but when they look in the mirror, they think they’re fat,” said Luis de la Barreda, director of the Citizens’ Institute. “We are an unsafe country, but we think we are much more unsafe that we really are.”

Certainly it’s interesting that the murder rate is down from 10 years ago in total, but of course that does nothing to counter the fact that the drug war is causing a huge toll. It’s just that other factors have improved.

Experts say while drug violence is up, land disputes have eased. Many farmers have migrated to the cities or abroad and the government has pushed to resolve the land disputes, some centuries old. […]

De la Barreda attributes the downward trend [in murders] to a general improvement in Mexico’s quality of life. More Mexicans have joined the ranks of the middle class in the past two decades, while education levels and life expectancy have also risen.

It would be interesting to know just how much the improved quality of life was due to the influx of drug-war cash.

So, if you’re planning your Spring Break vacation, go to Mexico. It’s safe! Except when it isn’t.

Reason TV interviews Gary Johnson. He talks about drug policy around the 4 minute to 7 minute mark.

“I’ve found, people armed with just a little bit of knowledge on this topic, move… move to a more rational position.”

‘We Must Win the Battle’ Calderon shows that he still doesn’t get it. Newsweek’s Lally Weymouth fails to ask the $64,000 question.

Drug Czar Should Go by Timothy Lynch

Voters are disgusted by the reckless spending of politicians in Washington. The backlash is coming, so policymakers are now scrambling to do something, or at least be seen as doing something, about the enormous federal debt. Now is a good time for Congress to abolish government agencies that are outdated, dysfunctional or just unnecessary.

A prime candidate for abolition is the office of the so-called “drug czar.”

Businesses Should Stay on Marijuana’s Good Side by Mason Tvert

Sooner or later, these companies will come to realize that they must respect the fact that marijuana consumers and supporters of reform are everywhere. And if they expect to keep their business, maintain their market-shares, and ensure healthy bottom lines, they must end their anti-marijuana madness.

After all, it’s not just those prime-time athletes who enjoy marijuana, but in many cases the fans… and the bank account holders… and the on-line video watchers… and the mountain climbers… and, of course, the coffee drinkers.

People who will never make a living teaching economics.

Harmon says making legalization work is based on a mistaken assumption that the people growing it now will allow themselves to be taxed.

“To me it’s akin to saying, ‘I grow tomatoes and you’re going to tax tomatoes in my backyard. Am I going to voluntarily disclose I’m raising tomatoes and pay a tax to you?” he says.

Legalization, according to Chris Gibson a top antidrug trafficking official, does nothing to reduce the criminal element for marijuana. He cites the Mexican drug cartels as an example. They’ve been growing marijuana in America’s national forests for years.

“They’re going to be able to undercut that price and there is still going to be a black market out there for marijuana grown by them,” he says. “Who do you think people will go to: The taxed product or the cheaper (and) potentially more potent version?”

Looks like there’s no point taxing anything then, because people won’t pay it — they’ll just pay criminals to supply it for them.

The truth is that people will pay rather significantly more to get it legally. In a legal market, the criminal has to undercut by a lot to get any significant share of the market, and that doesn’t give them enough profit margin to run a successful criminal enterprise. The trick is very simple — to make the tax reasonable enough so criminals can’t both significantly undercut and get rich.

Interesting series by David P. Price at Wilson County News.

Burglars who break into our homes, ransack and steal our prized possessions are deemed lesser criminals than someone whose “victims go to him”! This is clearly distorted. Distorted by those who cling to the Ignorance of Power. They believe the way to stop drug use is arrest everyone involved and “throw away the key”. Forty years has shown this approach doesn’t work.

CBS representatives won’t let NORML purchase a Times Square Billboard during the Superbowl.

DrugSense Weekly – a weekly review of the most interesting or relevant articles in the press and on the web related to drug policy reform.

Drug War Chronicle – weekly update of drug war news and analysis from Stop the Drug War.org.

One of the many heartbreaking stories told in Drug War Victims is that of Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity Bowers, part of a missionary plane shot down over Peru in our drug war.

After 9 years, the CIA footage has finally been released of the tragic event. The footage is distant, yet you hear the voices of the Americans and Peruvians deciding the fate of the unknowing passengers. The casual approach exhibited to shooting down a plane full of people is absolutely sickening, particularly when it was clear that the most either side had was a rough guess that the plane might be a “bandito” rather than an “amigo.”

Guardian: CIA footage broadcast of fatal attack on plane carrying US missionaries in Peru: US agency denied covering up botched anti-drug operation that led to death of American woman and baby in 2001

“I’m at 4,000 feet. The military is here. I don’t know what they want,” [pilot] Donaldson says [to the tower].

Moments later the jets open fire and Donaldson is heard screaming: “They’re killing me! They’re killing me!”

The CIA operatives are then heard to say “tell them to terminate, don’t shoot”. But by then it was too late. Bowers and her daughter were killed by a bullet from the jet’s guns.

This is your drug war.

Check out this media stupidity

Coroner’s report: Lewis had marijuana in system

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) – USI basketball player Jeron Lewis died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy according to the final report issued by the Daviess County coroner.

Toxicology tests showed Lewis also had marijuana in his system when he collapsed in a game against Kentucky Wesleyan January 14. There is no evidence the marijuana contributed to his death, however.

A young basketball player dies because of an undetected medical condition – an enlarged heart. Yet there are no questions by the media regarding the physicals taken by athletes. Just an irrelevant headline that he had marijuana in his system.

You’ve certainly heard me talk about Michele Leonhart enough here.

Now that President Obama has nominated her to stay on officially as Director of the DEA, we do have the opportunity to educate the Senate before her confirmation.

Someone at Change.org has put together an action item — a petition to sign and send letters to your Senators.

Check it out here. Only 23 people have acted so far on this item — would be nice to see that go up a bit.

From Tech Insider: An Expert Blog on the State of Federal Technology by Emily Long

While many people had serious policy concerns, others wanted to know about marijuana legalization, a mandated national bedtime and the president’s World of Warcraft skills. One even asked, “Why does God hate the Vikings?” [emphasis added]

The release of the new Drug Policy Budget Request isn’t just a time for us to moan about the lack of change, the power of the entrenched interests, or the failure of the system.

It’s an opportunity to write letters to the editor.

Everybody knows that we’re out of money, that states are scraping to find ways to pay for critical services, that towns can’t afford to fix potholes, and that the federal government has sold our mortgage to China. This is a great opportunity to ask people why we’re actually increasing the budget for programs that have been demonstrated (by the government) to be failures and do nothing but make drug kingpins rich at taxpayer expense.

Get enough of these letters printed around the country and the Representatives in Congress are going to start noticing (you can also, of course, write your Representative directly, but don’t ignore the power of the LTE). Here are some tips.

Well, the Drug Czar has come out with the proposed FY 2011 drug policy budget, and now we get to see Director Kerlikowske’s new focus on treatment. Remember…

March 12, 2009

The White House said yesterday that it will push for treatment, rather than incarceration, of people arrested for drug-related crimes as it announced the nomination of Seattle Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske to oversee the nation’s effort to control illegal drugs.

The choice of drug czar and the emphasis on alternative drug courts, announced by Vice President Biden, signal a sharp departure from Bush administration policies, gravitating away from cutting the supply of illicit drugs from foreign countries and toward curbing drug use in communities across the United States.

April 2, 2009

The Obama administration’s nominee for director of National Drug Control Policy said he will take a balanced approach to drug policy with a renewed focus on the prevention and treatment of addiction, if he is confirmed as the nation’s new drug czar.

May 14, 2009

The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,” a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.

August 29, 2009

“People,” [Kerlikowske] says, “want a different conversation” about drug policies. With his first report to the president early next year, he could increase the quotient of realism.

So now… (drum roll, please)… the new realism… the focus on treatment… the new 2011 Drug Policy Budget!

Press Release

Administration’s FY 2011 Budget Proposal Demonstrates Balanced Approach to Drug Control

The Fiscal Year 2011 National Drug Control Budget proposed by the Obama Administration would devote significant new resources to the prevention and treatment of drug abuse, National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said today….

He did it! Wonderful. Finally, a real shift in national priorities over the drug policy budget. I can’t wait to compare… dig into the numbers, create a chart and….

Oh.

... in millions of dollars

They even break it down into supply side and demand side budgets just to show how inept they are in putting together a “balanced” budget.

Every public policy expert will tell you that supply side drug war funding is, well, more of a waste of money than demand side. And even back in Walters’ day, he used to talk about how treatment is more cost-effective than enforcement. Kerlikowske upped the ante on that in every speech, and yet, the budgets are virtually indistinguishable. Except, of course, that in 2011, the drug war budget actually increases. [Note, also, that some years back they decided to eliminate the cost of prosecuting and incarcerating federal drug war prisoners from the tracked cost of drug policy in a blatant effort to make the treatment side look better in comparison.]

So why is there no real change?

Because there are so many entrenched interests in law enforcement, well organized interests with lobbyists and guns, that nothing can ever be cut. The only question when this bill reaches Congress is how much they try to increase the law enforcement/supply side numbers.

More on the drug policy budget:

• Raw Story: Obama grows the drug war, with enforcement the clear priority
• Opposing Views: Obama’s New Budget Would Increase Spending for War on Drugs
• Leap: A “Balanced Approach” to Drug Control?