(El Paso Times) EL PASO — Mexican federal police said Saturday that they arrested a second man in connection with the recent birthday party massacre in Juárez in which gunmen killed 16 people, including 11 teenagers.

Federal officials said the team of shooters were tipped off that people at the birthday party were members of a rival gang known as Artistas Asesinos (Artists Assassins), who reportedly work for the Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán drug cartel from Sinaloa.

The shooters were informed that the party would be at 10:30 p.m. Around that time, 16 gunmen arrived, some armed with AK-47s and AR-15 assault rifles, to shoot the partygoers, and sealed off the 1300 block of Villas del Portal.

Officials said some of the victims were gang members, but most were identified as students and athletes.

The attackers initially did not mean to kill some women and children. Arzate Meléndez said at a news conference Saturday that Ramírez said “que dispararan a todos parejo,” which roughly translates to “shoot everyone.”

In total, 16 died and 12 were wounded. The youngest killed was a 13-year-old girl; the oldest was 42.

Stop and think about this.  This massacre occurred just over the border from El Paso, Texas.  Imagine chaperoning your teenage son’s or daughter’s birthday party.  Picture gunmen with assault rifles bursting in, spraying your home with gunfire.  Try to comprehend the horror of trying to escape, trying to help your child, and finding every escape route blocked by more gunmen.

28% of young people will use marijuana this year; 11% will use twice a week or more.

You may think that Juárez is far away and that you and your children have nothing to do with rival drug gang warfare, so this doesn’t affect you.  But so long as there exists a War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs, there is the chance you can get caught up in the crossfire.  These Mexican gangs are controlling marijuana trafficking in 230 American cities.  28% of all young people aged 18-25 will use marijuana this year; 11% will use more than twice a week.  Those young people are going to get their marijuana from someone.  Will it be a dealer for a Mexican gang from Sinaloa or Juárez?  Could there be a misunderstanding that leads to gunmen attacking your college-aged child’s party in Peoria, Pocatello, or Portland?

Plus you must remember that both sides fighting the War on Marijuana are well armed and that sometimes, police make mistakes, too.  Mistakes on search warrants for drug raids killed 64-year-old John Adams of Lebanon, Tennessee; 46-year-old Willie Heard of Osawatomie, Kansas; 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston of Atlanta, Georgia; 45-year-old Israel Mena of Denver, Colorado; 44-year-old Cheryl Noel of Dunkalk, Maryland; 65-year-old Mario Paz of Compton, California; and 11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda of Modesto, California were all shot by police who were serving warrants on locations that either turned out to be wrong addresses or turned out to find no drugs whatsoever.

The only sensible way to protect our children from the horrors of prohibition-related drug trafficking violence is to take the market away from the criminals and give it to responsible law-abiding businesspeople.  After all, when is the last time you hear of teenagers getting caught in the crossfire of Al Capone’s gang warring over moonshine distribution?

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Hemp Headlines

1. President Obama: “Elliot Ness took on Al Capone back during Prohibition, oftentimes that causes even more violence.”
2. VA Sen Jim Webb Definitely Gets It
3. NORML’s Weekly Legislative Round Up

Pot and Politics

• Allen St. Pierre on NORML’s reaction to Obama’s Legalization joke, Jim Webb sentencing commission

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Chapter of the Week – Michigan NORML

• CHAPTER NAME: Michigan NORML
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Watch CBS Videos Online
Bob Schieffer asks the relevant question at the 11:09 mark of the video.

Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face the Nation asks Barack Obama about the violence in Mexico and the US inability to stop the flow of guns into Mexico. The President gives a most interesting answer:

President Obama: Well, what’s happened is that President Calderon I think has been very bold and rightly has decided that it’s gotten carried away. The drug cartels have too much power, are undermining and corrupting huge segments of Mexican society. And so he has taken them on in the same way that when, you know, Elliot Ness took on Al Capone back during Prohibition, oftentimes that causes even more violence. And we’re seeing that flare up.

And what eventually happened? We found that all the Elliot Nesses in the government could never stop Americans desire to drink. We found that the battles between the Untouchables and the Bootleggers would just continue and escalate. We found that the best solution was to take the business of production and distribution of liquor from violent criminals and give it to law-abiding businessmen.

…what we have to do is to recognize that, look, this is a two-way street – as Secretary Clinton indicated – we’ve gotta reduce demand for drugs.

How do you propose to do that? You’re arresting 872,721 Americans for marijuana; more people use marijuana and there is more of it than before we ever started arresting people.

More drug treatment? You’re sentencing pot smokers to drug treatment, 37% of whom haven’t even smoked pot in the thirty days prior to treatment (some “addiction”, huh?), with greater numbers of pot smokers in treatment than ever.

Demand for marijuana is not something that needs to be eradicated; it needs to be recognized and accepted. It’s not like alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, meth, or heroin where users want to quit but cannot because of a serious physical craving, where increased funding and access to treatment will reduce demand because there is an unaddressed demand for treatment. The majority of people in treatment for marijuana are involuntary admissions from courts, not people who are desperate for marijuana treatment.

Secretary Clinton said our demand for drugs is “insatiable”; by definition that is irreducable.

Your choices are more arrests and tougher punishments, more mandated drug treatment, and/or more interdiction. Oh, there is one thing you haven’t tried, Mr. President, but I wouldn’t want you to snicker at me.