Once You Pop, You Just Can't Stop... Those Damn Drug Cartels!

Need more proof that the drug war isn't working? Watch the above video of 20 Mexican drug cartel members dressed as police freeing 53 inmates from a Mexico jail. The cartel members arrived in 10 vehicles and a helicopter. Yes, they have fucking helicopters. And submarines. How many of the drug dealers and users that we put behind bars in the U.S. have helicopters and an underwater armada?

It's no secret that the drug war is such a failure in the US that we aren't even able to keep drugs out of our prisons, nevermind our schools. In Mexico, it seems that arresting and jailing drug cartel members does little to stop their operations; they continue their work from a jail cell.

“When we keep a criminal in a Mexican prison, we run the risk that one way or another they are going to keep in contact with their criminal network,” Leopoldo Velarde, who heads extraditions for the federal attorney general’s office, said. “The idea is to stop criminals, not just jail them.”

Well, that is the idea isn't it? I'm not old enough to remember watching the whole Pablo Escobar ordeal. I've read extensively about the Search Bloc and his death. And hey, that stopped Colombian drug cartels and the flow of cocaine to the US right? Wait, it didn't.

So we could wage an all our war with the Mexican drug cartels. We could kill all of those bastards and put our hard earned tax dollars into more military resources. We could sacrifice the lives of US soldiers and Mexican civilians can suffer 10x as much as they are now. And once we arrest, jail, or kill the cartel leaders, we can watch as new ones form and take over the violent trade as if we were never even there.

Or we could learn from history.

Gimme a L... Gimme a E... Gimme a G...

What does that spell? Legalize! A word that supposedly, neither President Obama nor ONDCP Director Gil Kelikowske have in their combined vocabulary.

Ok. While Obama doesn't say legalize here - he does say decriminalize. What is much more important in this clip is:

"I think that the war on drugs has been an utter failure."

Is failure in their vocabulary? Because they better get used that word being associated with U.S. drug policy if neither are willing to even say the "L-word". How can we take these two seriously when it comes to the much needed reform of our criminal justice system and drug policies?

Tancredo says Legalize Drugs!

Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said its time to consider legalizing drugs. The conservative is coming from this at a very common sense level - prohibition doesn't work. He realizes we have nothing to show for the wasted resources and lives that have resulted in a clogged criminal justice system and a prison overcrowding crisis. And as Tancredo says himself:

"It is now easier for a kid to get drugs at most schools in America that it is booze."

One person in opposition to Tancredo's stance gave the same ol' same ol' "what about the children?" excuse. "Kids will look at that and say,'Well, it must be all right because it's legal now."

I just gave a presentation to high school juniors and seniors in Oakland, CA. I asked the students a simple question: "If heroin or meth became legal today - how many of you would go out and use them?" Not a single hand went up and a few of them shouted "hell no!"

Former Drug Czar to Adult Marijuana Users: "Knock Yourself Out"

Look out! The sky is falling! Pigs are flying!

Barry McCaffrey just said something sensible. Actually, he says a few sensible things about the importance of drug treatment in this interview from 2000. McCaffrey came around to see that treatment access and quality needed to improved in the U.S. Unfortunately little has been done to actually shift law enforcement resources to treatment and education.

It makes sense to me. If you earn a high school degree, become an adult, smoke marijuana responsibly, and don't hurt anyone else... who cares? Not Barry McCaffrey thank goodness!

Glenn Beck: "Let's Legalize Marijuana"

Well folks, I think its obvious that Glenn Beck must be reading the DARE Generation Diary! He seems to have completely changed his tone about marijuana legalization.

Beck starts of this segment saying "I woke up this morning and I thought, we should legalize marijuana."

I have to say, I burst out laughing at first - the resulting combination of joy from seeing this discussion take place on Fox News and the absurdity of his last segment on the subject (not to say I'm not happy that the has seen the light!). Plus, I thought he might be kidding...

But, Beck provided the venue for a fantastic and balanced discussion about the effects of prohibition. This wasn't a discussion about the benefits or dangers of using drugs. We all know that drug use, like most behaviors, can carry consequences. This was a forum about prohibition and a comparison of its failure in the 1920's to its failure today.

Beck's guest for the discussion is Mexico's former deputy foreign minister, Andres Rozental. Rozental provides unarguable testimony and at times makes touching points concerning the devastation that prohibition has caused Mexico. Beck asks Rozental, "explain to me how using marijuana is NOT a victimless crime." Rozental answers beautifully, explaining that, really, the best way to make marijuana use a victimless crime is:

"legalize it, regulate it, make sure that the purity is what it should be, make sure that it pays taxes rather than fill the pockets of criminal gangs, and then be much more reasonable and rational about the way you deal with these things."

Throughout the segment both repeat over and over again the same exact argument that drug policy reformers have been screaming for years; Legalize marijuana! Not because drugs are good and not because drugs are bad - legalize marijuana because prohibition creates violence, prohibition creates and funds terrorists and organized crime. Prohibition is the problem and legalization is the solution.

We are at the "tipping point" friends. Even if our country continues to wage this failed war on drugs, no one can continue to justify it. Not even Glenn Beck.