John Walters once said, “The fact is today, people don’t go to jail for the possession of marijuana. Finding somebody in jail or prison for possession of marijuana is like finding a unicorn. It doesn’t exist.”
When the US taxpayers no longer fund your demonizing of the sick, disabled, dying, and sense-threatened people who use medical marijuana, what do you do? If you’re former drug czar John “Marijuana Unicorns” Walters, you get yourself a cushy job at the Hudson Institute, a think tank founded by Herman Kahn. Kahn’s work was part of the dogma of cold war ideology, having coined the term “mutually assured destruction” regarding nuclear capabilities of the US and then USSR. (He also coined the term “megadeath”, meaning “one million deaths”, which since has been appropriated and misspelled by the band Megadeth.) Kahn is reportedly one of the inspirations for the character of Dr. Strangelove in the 1964 film of the same name.
In recent months, more Americans have learned what those living on the border have known for several years: the Mexican government is in a deadly fight with extremely violent gangs.
The administration should be fighting for full funding of the Merida Program of assistance from the United States. Our vital equipment and training will protect innocent lives in both our countries. But the White House has been unengaged as Congress is on a path to cut $100 million in support beyond the $100 million reduction of the last Congress. At a time when Mexico knows as well as we do that Congress is recklessly stimulating and earmarking billions, slashing funding for our national security is grossly irresponsible.
On the key issue of illegal drugs–the widely recognized source of criminal power in Mexico–the Obama administration is lurching dangerously in reverse. In his first statement on drug policy, Attorney General Eric Holder suggested he may no longer enforce federal law against trafficking marijuana if the traffickers call their marijuana medical. Both U.S. and Mexican officials at all levels know that medical marijuana is an utter fraud used to undermine drug enforcement in the United States. Mexican officials also know (as does the Justice Department) that much of the marijuana sold in the “dispensaries” of California funds the mafias of Mexico.
Marijuana sales are the single largest source of drug profits for these criminals–on top of funds from kidnapping, protection rackets, alien smuggling, and car theft. Not enforcing our marijuana laws makes these terrorists stronger. Pretending to take legalization seriously makes them stronger still. What do we think the brave officers risking their lives in Mexico feel when our attorney general sounds like he is going to do less to help? Is it too much to expect him to make clear that enforcing our marijuana laws reduces addiction here and saves lives in Mexico?
I hope that this will change. The recently released Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world includes one of Mexico’s most dangerous criminal leaders. President Obama should make it his goal to help President Calderon apprehend this man and those like him as soon as possible.
John P. Walters is executive vice president of Hudson Institute and former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George W. Bush.
via PREVIEW: Up In Smoke.
Walters offers no proof that California dispensary medicine is funding Mexican mafias, but evidence and proof were never his strong suit, anyway. I find it interesting that a stimulus package intended to reverse the economic damage from eight years of laissez-faire policies of the previous administration – Walters’ administration – is considered “recklessly stimulating”, but throwing another $100M-$200M at the failed Meridia policies is “vital equipment and training”. I’d say something about pots and kettles, but considering this blog’s subject and the president’s race, that’s too many puns for one day.
But suppose that Walters is right and some Mexican-grown and Mexican-trafficked marijuana makes it onto dispensary shelves. What’s keeping American farmers from supplying those dispensaries, John, and cutting the Mexicans out of the marketplace? “Pretending to take legalization seriously” scares the hell out of Mexico’s drug criminals! Do you suppose Al Capone circulated many petitions in support of the 21st Amendment?
president’s race ?
The pot calling the kettle mulatto ?
I don’t get it.
Way off-base, Russ.
President Bush was incredibly far from laissez-faire. LF can be summarized in Adam “Father of Capitalism” Smith’s dictum of “peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice” as being the only things needed to turn a desparately poor country into one that is characterized by prosperity and the opportunity it brings.
Well, we know that the Bush administration did nothing even close to a tolerable administration of justice. 870,000 marijuana arrests a year? DEA raids on places that supply life-saving medicine? Imprisoning Tommy Chong for selling pieces of glass? etc. etc.
Bush also spent something like $10 billion a month on a war with Iraq, a nation that was no threat to us. The best economic estimates we have say that that will end up costing us $3 trillion when all is said and done. That’s obviously a FAIL on the “peace” front but since all that spending will have to be paid off with either taxes or inflation, that’s also an abrogation of “easy taxes.”
And then, of course, there’s that whole incredibly expensive bailout for the wealthy bankers matter. It’s true that Obama is continuing Bush’s policies, but we can’t forget that Bush started the money spigot for Wall St. (A true laissez-faire approach is to let failing businesses actually fail. Uncle Sam, please take your filthy hands off the economy!) So Bush fails all three parts of the laissez-faire test. Sure, it’s true that Obama is also continuing the Bush-era policy of giving a few rich people a lot of money from ordinary taxpayers, but he can honestly claim he didn’t start it.
Bush and Obama are more alike than it seems at first glance.
If I weren’t partial to a more favorable substance(
) all of this would drive me to drink.