These guys literally have gold-plated machine guns. Bought and paid for by American Marijuana Prohibition (and, perhaps, walked into Mexico while the ATF watched).

FOX News Latino is reporting news of a huge drug ring bust with the headline “Arizona Busts Billion Dollar Drug Ring Tied To Mexican Cartels“. Based on the report, over 99% of the drugs seized in what was called “Operation Pipeline Express” was marijuana.

The ring is believed be tied to the Sinaloa cartel — Mexico’s most powerful — and responsible for smuggling more than 3.3 million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into the U.S. through Arizona over the past five years, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Their efforts in that time generated an estimated $2 billion, according to ICE.

In the three busts combined, the agencies have arrested 76 suspected smugglers and seized more than 61,000 pounds of pot, about 160 pounds of heroin, about 210 pounds of cocaine, nearly $760,000 in cash, and 108 weapons, including assault rifles and shotguns. The other busts came in mid-September and mid-October.

Remember during Prop 19′s legalization campaign in California when everybody was arguing about just how much marijuana legalization would cripple the Mexican drug traffickers?  Arizona’s Attorney General was saying “The violence that we see in Mexico is fueled 65 to 70 percent by the trade in one drug: marijuana.”  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quoting the Drug Czar’s 2006 National Drug Control Strategy that said, “61 percent of that revenue, or $8.5 billion, is directly tied to marijuana export sales” (page 36).  Then the RAND Corporation was studying how much Prop 19 would hurt the Mexican drug traffickers and said, ”This 60% figure is a truly mythical number, one that appeared out of nowhere and that has acquired great authority.  This figure should not be taken seriously.”  The Drug Czar also scoffed at the notion that legalization would hurt eat into Mexican drug traffickers’ profits, saying the marijuana revenue data “was based on 1997 information… we strongly believe we see significantly less than the numbers cited from 14 years ago.”

So how does that jibe with the numbers from this “Operation Pipeline Express”?

By weight, then, over 99% of what was seized and what was estimated to have been trafficked overall was marijuana.  However, there is more profitability in cocaine and heroin than marijuana.  Let’s figure that out by throwing in the ONDCP’s own estimated street value of illegal drugs, as of 2007.  In that report, they place the price of a pound of marijuana between $250 – $6,000, a pound of cocaine at $6,500 – $10,000, and a pound of heroin at $24,000 – $56,000.  If we use the lowest figures for all three drugs, then we only get a total of about $1.2 billion – remember, they said this was a ring responsible for “an estimated $2 billion”.

So let’s give the prohibitionists the best possible scenario: cocaine and heroin that fetch the highest prices recorded in 2007 and the cheapest schwag Mexican brickweed priced at a level that will get us a $2 billion total ($375.76/lb… thanks Excel Goal Seek!)

It’s entirely possible that the Mexican drug trafficking organizations like the Sinaloa cartel make significant profits through other criminal activities not listed here.  It’s also tough to make perfectly accurate claims about an unregulated market.  Based on this “Operation Pipeline Express” data, however, it appears that our prohibition on American grown and sold marijuana is an enormous financial benefit worth at least half or more of the Mexican criminal gangs’ profits.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Denise Maerker of Televisa in Mexico.

QUESTION: In Mexico, there are those who propose not keeping going with this battle and legalize drug trafficking and consumption. What is your opinion?

SECRETARY CLINTON: I don’t think that will work. I mean, I hear the same debate. I hear it in my country. It is not likely to work. There is just too much money in it, and I don’t think that – you can legalize small amounts for possession, but those who are making so much money selling, they have to be stopped. They can’t be given an even easier road to take, because they will then find it in their interest to addict even more young people. Mexico didn’t have much of a drug problem before the last 10 years, and you want to keep it that way. So you don’t want to give any excuse to the drug traffickers to be able legally to addict young people.

QUESTION: But in the United States there [is] more and more tolerance for marijuana, right?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: So this doesn’t seem right. Like the tolerance in the United States, and here we are killing each other for this product.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, the tolerance is in a very limited arena. It is for medical –

QUESTION: Medical use.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Medical use. And there are lots of regulations on it. So it’s not accurate to say, as I’ve heard some say, well, we’re legalizing marijuana. We are not. We are – the biggest – we have more people incarcerated, unfortunately, than any country in the world, and most of them are there because of some drug-related offense. So we know that this is not an easy struggle. We’ve been at it ourselves. But we also believe that you have to keep the pressure on the criminals; otherwise, they will just expand their operations, and then you do have to worry about more corruption, more problems with institutions.

USA! USA! We're #1! We're #1! Oh, wait... this #1 sucks!

Wait, I thought medical marijuana was out-of-control, a free-for-all, and the inevitable stepping stone to legalization?

Our Secretary of State just said it is a “very limited arena” with “lots of regulations on it” and that it is “[not] legalizing marijuana”.

Then she notes that we have the most prisoners in the world (2.3 million, or 23% of the world’s imprisoned) and says we need to “keep the pressure on the criminals”.  Huh?  Isn’t that what got us “most of them … there because of some drug-related offense?”  How about we stop defining over half of them, the cannabis users, as criminals in the first place?

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access
Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2011-01-26.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Hillary Clinton calls the Drug War in Mexico “messy”
2. Laguna Hills marijuana seminar focuses on seniors and medical marijuana
3. Border Patrol agent fired for expressing opinion that legalization would help end border violence

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Grateful Dread Public Radio at http://gdreadradio.net, a 24-hour community service Internet radio station proud to carry NORML SHOW LIVE

• Irie Wednesday: Queen Omega – “Ganja Baby”

Government at Work

• Erik Williams from CampaignsWon.com on decrim and medmj in Connecticut

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

Screenshot from CBS News website

A loyal NORML reader notes the unintended irony in the AP photo accompanying CBS News’ coverage of the 28,000 Mexicans who’ve been killed in the drug war south of our border.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has remarked that “Clearly what we’ve been doing has not worked,” and “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.” Sec’y Clinton notes that “Neither interdiction [of drugs] nor reducing demand have been successful.”

Yet Americans have a far more insatiable demand for beer than they do cannabis and drugs.  Some of those beers, like Corona, even provide an export market for Mexico and jobs for poor Mexicans.

And nobody turns up tortured and dead under a Budweiser banner, either.

If what we’ve done for thirty years hasn’t worked, if our demand is insatiable, if interdiction is not successful, what other possible way could we deal with marijuana – a product more than half of all Americans under age 50 have tried and 10% of American adults enjoy annually?

The solution to the problem in that photograph isn’t found by going after the murderous criminals who put that banner on the ground.  It’s found in the lessons we learned seventy-seven years ago that led to a beer company putting its banner on the wall.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen killed a U.S. consulate employee and her husband as they drove in this violent border city with their baby in the back seat, minutes after the husband of another consular employee was shot to death and his two children wounded, officials said Sunday. Security forces suspected a drug gang hit.

Civilians have increasingly gotten caught in the middle of drug gang violence that has made Ciudad Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world, with more than 2,500 people killed last year alone. At least 11 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez over the weekend.The three died during a particularly bloody weekend in Mexico, with nearly 50 people killed in apparent gang violence. Nine people were killed in a gang shootout early Sunday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, one of Mexico’s spring break attractions.

Ten minutes before that killing, police had found the body of the husband of a Mexican employee of the consulate.  Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, 37, was shot to death in his car, while his two children, ages 4 and 7, were wounded, according to the state prosecutors office. The children were hospitalized.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “these appalling assaults on members of our own State Department family are, sadly, part of a growing tragedy besetting many communities in Mexico.  They underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with the Government of President Calderon to cripple the influence of trafficking organizations at work in Mexico,” she added. “This is a responsibility we must shoulder together.”

We the People just sent to your boss, Secretary Clinton, our #1 idea for public policy change in the United States.  It is the same #1 idea we have presented to the Obama Administration four times before.

We the People know that the only serious way to “cripple the influence” (read: money) of the murderers in Mexico is to ruin their business by growing our own legal marijuana for the 22 million Americans who will use it this year.

We the People know that these murderers are able to bribe police and military and government officials and purchase all the guns and ammo and bulletproof SUVs they want because 60%-70% of their profits come from the lucrative illegal marijuana trade.

We the People know there aren’t enough heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine users* in America to support the murderers’ decadent lifestyle and gold-plated automatic weapons.

We the People know that our appetite for cannabis will never wane and that a country that can’t keep cannabis out of its maximum security prisons can’t possibly keep Mexican marijuana from crossing our borders.

We the People are more than willing to shoulder the responsibility of legal adult cannabis use that will cripple the Mexican drug trafficking organizations… and we continue to be appalled that our leaders won’t listen to us and shoulder their share of the responsibility.

* 8.0% of Americans 12 or older used “any illicit drug” in 2007, a list that includes “marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), heroin, hallucinogens (including LSD and PCP), inhalants, or any prescription-type psychotherapeutic drug used nonmedically.”  5.8% were marijuana users.

Some words of wisdom from Franklin Roosevelt, as told by Hillary Clinton to Rabbi Michael Lerner:

If there had been more space in the Politico.com I would have told the story that Hillary Clinton told me when I met with her in the White House: that when FDR met with labor leaders in 1934, after four hours of meeting, he said the following: “You’ve convinced me that you are right. Now, go out there and FORCE ME TO DO IT.” What he meant, Hillary explained to me, was that the pressures on a President to stay with the status quo and the forces of the economic and political elites of the country are enormous, so that even when a President wishes to move in a different direction, he needs to be able to point to forces from the progressive world that are equally vociferous and pushing him in the direction he wished to go.

So, those who say, “Don’t criticize Obama, because he is such a decent person, so smart, and obviously wants the right things” are missing the point: OBAMA NEEDS TO BE PUSHED FROM THE PROGRESSIVE WORLD IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO BE WHO HE WANTS TO BE. He needs our support in this way.

An object in motion tends to stay in motion; an object at rest tends to stay at rest.  What is true for elementary physics is true in politics.  It has to be more politically harmful to oppose legalization of marijuana than to support it before most politicians will be on our side.  It is not enough for us to be right; we must be LOUD.

This is more than just calling President Obama at 202-456-1111 and demanding that he commute the sentence of Eddy Lepp (but by all means, call!)

• It’s calling your two federal senators and federal representative.
• It’s calling your governor, state senator, state representative, mayor, and city council.
• It’s standing proud and loud as an out cannabis consumer and encouraging others to do so.
• It’s finding which companies drug test and boycotting them and letting their HR departments know about it.
• It’s boycotting companies like Kellogg’s when they give in to reefer madness.
• It’s attending the trials of our brothers and sisters being imprisoned for what we do as well.
• It’s marching in the Global Marijuana March and picketing whomever and whenever there is a cannabis related tragedy.
• It’s donating money to our organizations and the politicians who are brave enough to support us.
• It’s writing letters to the editor of your local paper (the most read section of the news, by the way).
• It’s supporting third parties, like the Greens and Libertarians, who support our agenda, or pushing pro-cannabis platforms for the Democrats and Republicans from within the party apparatus.
• It’s correcting obvious reefer madness spouted by your friends or coworkers.
• It’s promoting tolerance and forgiveness as preached by your religion to the members of your faith concerning cannabis.
• It’s kicking your habit to pop an acetaminophen or aspirin for every little ache and pain.
• It’s protesting TV shows that portray us negatively (like that FOX new show , “Glee”, that had an ex-teacher lying to get medical marijuana, dealing it to non cardholders, another teacher being high on it during school, and the protagonist using it to extort a star jock to join the glee club.)
• And, if you can afford it, it’s non-violent civil disobedience, like announcing that you and one hundred others will be on the capitol steps at noon in possession of .05g of marijuana each and forcing them to arrest you while the news cameras are running, or passing out thousands of fake joints at a public event along with a flier that reads “Congratulations!  You just received one of 10,000 fake joints, absolutely free of marijuana.  Or maybe you received the one real marijuana joint we added to the sack of 10,000 fake ones.  If so, you could spend a year in prison and pay a $5,000 fine.”

Next president might be gentler on pot clubs
Ever since California voters became the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, the state has faced unyielding opposition from the federal government, which insists it has the power to prohibit a drug it considers useless and dangerous.

That could all change with the next presidential election.

As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana.

His Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is less explicit, recently softening a pledge she made early in the campaign to halt federal raids in states with medical marijuana laws. But she has expressed none of the hostility that marked the response of her husband’s administration to California’s initiative, Proposition 215.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, has gone back and forth on the issue – promising a medical marijuana patient at one campaign stop that seriously ill patients would never face arrest under a McCain administration, but ultimately endorsing the Bush administration’s policy of federal raids and prosecutions.

Senator Obama seems to understand that there is legitimate medical use for marijuana, comparing doctor-prescribed morphine to doctor-recommended marijuana.  Senator Clinton seems to have waffled a bit, saying first that the DEA raids in medical marijuana states should end, but later saying instead that DEA raids shouldn’t be a “high priority”, which leaves the possibility open that the DEA raids would be a priority to some lesser extent.  She also seems unaware of marijuana’s proven medicinal benefits, calling for more research despite the dozens of studies that have confirmed marijuana as medicine.  And Senator McCain has flip-flopped numerous times on this issue, telling one patient he’d never be arrested for using medical marijuana, but then stating that he would not end DEA raids in medical marijuana states.

At a November appearance in Audubon, Iowa, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He said he would be open to allowing medical use of marijuana, if scientists and doctors concluded it was effective, but only under “strict guidelines,” because he was “concerned about folks just kind of growing their own and saying it’s for medicinal purposes.”

Obama went a step further in an interview in March with the Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Ore. While still expressing qualms about patients growing their own supply or getting it from “mom-and-pop stores,” he said it is “entirely appropriate” for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, “with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors.”

Those raids have been the focus of Hillary Clinton’s comments on the issue. At a July campaign event in Manchester, N.H., she told a medical marijuana advocate that she would end the federal raids, according to Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, which recorded the exchange.

But the candidate was less absolute in a more recent interview with the Willamette Week newspaper in Hillsboro, Ore.

“I don’t think it’s a good use of federal law enforcement resources to be going after people who are supplying marijuana for medicinal purposes,” Clinton said in the April 5 interview. But when asked whether she would stop the raids, she replied, “What we should do is prioritize what the DEA should be doing, and that would not be a high priority. There’s a lot of other, more important work that needs to be done.”

Clinton has also said she opposes repealing criminal penalties for marijuana, but told advocates in October that the government should conduct more research “into what, if any, medical benefits it has.”

McCain has taken a variety of positions, according to comments recorded by medical marijuana advocates.

At an April 2007 campaign kickoff event, when asked if he would end federal raids, he said, “I would let states decide that issue.” But less than two months later, he said he would not end the raids. Then, in November, he promised a man who described himself as a seriously ill marijuana patient that he would “do everything in my power” to make sure the man was never arrested for using the drug.

While maintaining that medical experts considered marijuana ineffectual and potentially dangerous, McCain promised at the same November event in New Hampshire to consult with experts and issue an “in-depth policy paper” on the topic within a few days. McCain’s campaign has not responded to media inquiries, and marijuana advocates say the policy paper was never issued.

He was also asked during a November conference call whether the federal government should override the will of the people in states with medical marijuana laws. “Medical marijuana is not something that the, quote, people want,” McCain replied.

Friday is Cannabis Community day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re speaking with our regular guest Steve Bloom, the webmaster at CelebStoner.com. We’ll be discussing the Democratic presidential candidate’s latest stands on medical marijuana, some crazy opinions offered lately by Snoop Dogg about Barack Obama, a CelebStoner Harold & Kumar contest, and Steve’s tour dates to promote his new book, Pot Culture, The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life.

Next, Cannabis Karri brings back one of her favorites, the jazz group The Tallbrothers, with their song “You Get Me Too High”. These hep cats from British Columbia will get you the right kind of mellow for your weekend.

We wrap things up today with director/producer Craig Nisker and writer/actor Chris Iverson who are here to promote their new film, The Green Goddess, based on the true exploits of Iverson and friends growing six football fields’ worth of marijuana in Switzerland in the 1990s.

Finally, don’t forget that every Saturday we’re now posting the NORML Weekend Music Stash, where you can get all of the last ten songs from our daily musical breaks in one podcast, suitable for your weekend party pleasure. If you have a band that would like to be featured on our podcast, please send us an email at stash ‘at’ norml.org.

So sit back and relax with your favorite strain and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash…

Willamette Week | “Twenty Minutes With Hillary” | April 9th, 2008
What would you do as president about the federal government not recognizing Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program as legal?

We’ve got to have a clear understanding of the workings of pain relief and the control of pain. And there needs to be greater research and openness to the research that’s already been done. I don’t think it’s a good use of federal law-enforcement resources to be going after people who are supplying marijuana for medicinal purposes.

So you’d stop the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s raids on medical marijuana grows?

What we would do is prioritize what the DEA should be doing, and that would not be a high priority. There’s a lot of other more important work that needs to be done.

So does that mean that when the DEA finishes up with its important work, then the DEA should be tackling the low-priority issue of raiding medical marijuana states?

Look, Senator Clinton, it’s not a fiscal issue, it’s a medical issue and it’s a states rights issue.  It’s not a question of it being a poor use of federal resources; even if it were an efficient use of federal resources, it would be wrong, period.  Medical marijuana raids do not need to be re-prioritized, they need to be eliminated.

(HuffingtonPost) Hillary Clinton has come out against making retroactive the small change in sentencing guidelines that allows some people convicted under the overly harsh crack laws to have their sentences reviewed by a judge, and if they are found eligible, given early release. Most blacks affected will still serve more than a decade in prison for a nonviolent crime for which whites often escape incarceration entirely– but nevermind.

Hillary has bought into fears that this means a sudden massive release of an army of Willie Hortons. But over 90% of crack prisoners sentenced under these laws have no record of violent crime– and 94% were not classified as “kingpins” or even mid-level drug dealers. Further, the judge reviewing the sentences provides a safety net to ensure that those who are a risk to the public are not released early.

Obama, meanwhile, supports making the sentencing change retroactive. Even though politically, given his admission about his own drug use, he has far more to lose than she does by doing the right thing.

I remember when Bill Clinton was running in 1992. Here was a likable guy who had at least been around marijuana, even if he “didn’t inhale”, and he played saxophone, leading me to believe he’d at least been around some people who smoke marijuana. I was excited by the idea that we’d finally have a president who realized how destructive our War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs really is.

When Clinton came into office, there were about 300,000 arrests nationally of marijuana smokers. By the time he left, there were about 700,000. When California passed Prop 215 legalizing medical cannabis in the state, it was Bill Clinton’s administration that sent the jack-booted federal thugs to raid dispensaries and arrest patients.

Now we have Barack Obama, a candidate who, when asked about his admitting to marijuana use in his youth, said, “I inhaled, frequently. That was the point.” Would he finally be the president who does something positive to end the drug war? Or would he turn out like Bill Clinton and turn his back on us cannabis consumers?

I think this view on the crack sentencing provides us a glimpse into the possible administrations of the two Democratic candidates. Both have pledged they would end DEA raids on medical cannabis states; however, Hillary Clinton keeps touting her years of experience in the Clinton White House as First Lady, and that White House started the raids. If Hillary Clinton can’t support something as moral as fixing the racist laws on crack sentencing (5g of crack — inner city black’s cocaine — gets you the same sentence as 500g of powder — suburban white’s cocaine), I don’t much expect her to be any better on the marijuana issue.