96% of BEST drug seizures at the Mexican border are marijuana

(Counterpunch.org) DHS says the new initiative will be based on a “risk-based decision-making process.” All the various DHS initiatives that are part of its SBI umbrella program contend that they are “risk-based.” DHS contends it is protecting the homeland against “dangerous goods and people.”

In practice, however, its array of border control and immigration enforcement programs casts a wide net—with most of the arrests being immigration violators and drug law offenders rather than dangerous criminals. Marijuana leads, by far, the list of illegal drugs seized, even though there is widening consensus, even in the criminal justice community, that marijuana is not a “dangerous good,” especially when compared with cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines.

The achievements of the existing [Border Enforcement Security Taskforce] BEST teams don’t support ICE declarations that their investigation and prosecutions are “risk-based.” The existing 95 members of BEST teams in the Southwest were responsible for 1,000 criminal arrests in 2008, but most of its arrests—1,256—were for administrative violations, presumably transgressions of immigration law. Marijuana seizures topped the list of drugs confiscated. BEST seized 42,400 lbs. of marijuana, 1,803 lbs. of cocaine, and 66 lbs. of heroin.

Do you feel safer now?  When President Nixon declared the war on drugs, one of the first programs on the Mexican border was “Operation Intercept“.  Then, too, the idea was that we’d stop those Mexicans from supplying weed to our youth.  The massive crackdown was called off after Mexican officials complained about how badly this backed up legitimate business traffic at the border.

In this case, it’s not just business traffic inconveniences to worry about, it’s potential terrorists and explosive or radioactive materials we’re worried about.  Every time border cops have to spend time busting truckloads of pot is an opportunity for a terrorist to go unnoticed.

Next week ministers from around the world gather in Vienna to set international drug policy for the next decade. Like first-world-war generals, many will claim that all that is needed is more of the same. In fact the war on drugs has been a disaster, creating failed states in the developing world even as addiction has flourished in the rich world. By any sensible measure, this 100-year struggle has been illiberal, murderous and pointless. That is why The Economist continues to believe that the least bad policy is to legalise drugs.

“Least bad” does not mean good. Legalisation, though clearly better for producer countries, would bring (different) risks to consumer countries. As we outline below, many vulnerable drug-takers would suffer. But in our view, more would gain.

After pointing out the evidence of the Drug War’s failure to achieve “A drug free world by 2008″ as the UN’s general assembly crowed in 1998, The Economist points out:

This is not for want of effort. The United States alone spends some $40 billion each year on trying to eliminate the supply of drugs. It arrests 1.5m of its citizens each year for drug offences, locking up half a million of them; tougher drug laws are the main reason why one in five black American men spend some time behind bars. In the developing world blood is being shed at an astonishing rate. In Mexico more than 800 policemen and soldiers have been killed since December 2006 (and the annual overall death toll is running at over 6,000). This week yet another leader of a troubled drug-ridden country—Guinea Bissau—was assassinated.

The Economist then explains how legalization won’t be a tough sell at all in the producer countries, but it is faced with major political hurdles in the consumer countries:

That fear is based in large part on the presumption that more people would take drugs under a legal regime. That presumption may be wrong. There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also Britain) take more drugs, not fewer. Embarrassed drug warriors blame this on alleged cultural differences, but even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates. Legalisation might reduce both supply (pushers by definition push) and demand (part of that dangerous thrill would go). Nobody knows for certain. But it is hard to argue that sales of any product that is made cheaper, safer and more widely available would fall. Any honest proponent of legalisation would be wise to assume that drug-taking as a whole would rise.

Here at NORML we promote the legalization of cannabis.  Other drugs should require other measures that take into account the addictiveness and socially destructive capabilities of those drugs.  I personally don’t believe those measures should include locking up addicts — prison is a lousy rehab — but I also don’t think a regulatory scheme that treats marijuana similar to alcohol would be appropriate for, say, cocaine, meth, or heroin.

But when you say the word “Legalization”, immediately people conjure visions of “Maui Wowie”, “Colombia Flake”, “Crystal Energy”, and “Super Smack” sold on convenience store shelves next to the 24-oz beers and junk food snack cakes.  “Legalization”, though, can mean marijuana in adults-only stores with IDs checked for age 21 and limits placed on amount purchased while it can also mean much more stringent restrictions on other drugs like prescriptions and pharmacies and tight controls.

[More fantastic reporting from MrSpof, especially below the fold.  -- "R"R]

WASHINGTON – Federal agents have rounded up 755 suspects in a wide-ranging crackdown on a Mexican drug cartel operating inside the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday.

The Justice Department said that as part of the 21-month-long investigation, DEA and other federal agents had seized $59 million in U.S. currency; 12,535 kilograms of cocaine; more than 16,000 pounds of marijuana; more than 12 pounds of methamphetamine; approximately 8 kilograms of heroin; approximately 1.3 million pills or 500 pounds of Ecstasy; approximately 120 kilograms of MDMA powder; and more than $6.5 million in other assets, including 149 vehicles, 3 aircraft, 3 maritime vessels and 169 weapons.

via MSNBC – U.S. arrests 755 in Mexican drug cartel raids

My presumption is that the DEA expects this will make us feel that they are being successful in their War on US Citizens. Maybe this lends credence to former Drug Czar John Water’s claim that:

“If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence,” a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence “because these guys are flailing. We’re taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now.”

via The Agitator – God Help Us If We Start “Winning” the Drug War, Too

Or maybe the drug warriors have learned nothing from Greek mythology about what happens when you cut the head off the Hydra:

• OPERATION META 1997
  1,765 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATIONS RECIPROCITY & LIMELIGHT 1997
  13,700 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATIONS IMPUNITY & MILLENNIUM 1999
  4,800 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATIONS CONQUISTADOR & COLUMBUS 2000
  1459.5 Metric Tons of Marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
  73.4 Kilograms of Hash oil seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION GREEN AIR 2000
  34,000 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION IMPUNITY II 2000 l
  9,526 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION MARQUIS 2001
  23,096 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION GREEN CLOVER 2001
  320 pounds and 4100 plants of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operations Pipe Dreams And Headhunter 2003
  indictment of 50 individuals and national distributors on charges of trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia
• Operation Trifecta 2003
  24,409 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Candy Box 2004
  1,370 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Money Clip 2004
  39,265 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Three Hour Tour 2005
  216 lbs. of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Mallorca 2005
  21,650 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Choque, Operation Denali, and Operation Falling Star 2005
  37,055 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Sweet Tooth 2005
  1,777 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Northern Impact 2005
  2,258 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Cali Exchange 2005
  518 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Imperial Emperor 2007
  27,229 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Jacket Racket 2007
  150 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Puma 2007
  33 metric tons of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Imperial Emperor Phase II 2007
  434 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Project Reckoning 2008
  51,258 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Sudden Fall 2008
  50 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
  48 hydroponic marijuana plants seized, destroyed, or eradicated
  30 vials of hash oil seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Project Reckoning, Phase II 2008
  57,243 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Albatross 2008
  262 tons of hashish seized, destroyed, or eradicated

So DEA, did you get it all yet? Including today’s cartel raids, that’s a lot of seized marijuana and a ton of arrests to go with it. Surely some dent must have been made in the flow of marijuana into our country …

I know, let’s ask the class. “Excuse me, you bright faced group of 100 high school students chosen at random. Could anyone help me get a bag of marijuana?”

86 hands go up.

Well, I’m glad our current policy of marijuana prohibition thinks of the children, aren’t you? You cannot legislate human behavior and morality. You cannot arrest your way to a victory in the War against US Citizens.

Just south of the Portland, Oregon, metro area is a town called Molalla. Like most rural areas in Oregon, it is politically much more intolerant of cannabis than the liberal confines of Multnomah County.

An Oregon NORML member snapped this pic while driving on US Hwy 99E.  In case it’s unreadable (click pic for larger version) the message on this billboard from the Molalla Coalition Against Drug Crime says:

MARIJUANA- A Gateway Drug to METH

This message is accompanied by a picture of a man smoking a joint on the left, and the now infamous Oregonian picture of the pock-marked female meth addict.  Then the message continues by asking people to call the county sheriff’s office anonymous tip line.

We’re not against community organizations who in good faith try to relieve their neighborhoods of crime.  It’s just sad that they’re trying to reduce the harm from hard drugs by lying about cannabis.  Marijuana is not a gateway to meth or any other drug, any moreso than coffee, nicotine, alcohol, sugar, or Flintstones Chewable Vitamins.  The gateway theory has been debunked by many independent organizations and even by our own drug-hating government:

University of Pittsburgh 2006:

Researchers found that adolescents who used marijuana prior to using other drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, were no more likely to develop a substance abuse disorder than other subjects in the study.

RAND Corp Study 2002: 

“While the gateway theory has enjoyed popular acceptance, scientists have always had their doubts,” said lead researcher Andrew Morral, associate director of RAND’s Public Safety and Justice unit.  “Our study shows that these doubts are justified.”

Institute of Medicine 1999: 

“There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.  

“Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana — usually before they are of legal age.”

In fact, the American Medical Association claims that if there is such a “gateway” effect, it’s alcohol and tobacco that are the “gateway”.  From the Journal of the American Medical Association:

“…early regular use of tobacco and alcohol emerged as the 2 factors most consistently associated with later illicit drug use and abuse/dependence.”

I could keep link-farming all of the studies from Canada, Australia, Europe, and the World Health Organization that declare the marijuana gateway theory to be bullshit, but you can easily find that for yourself at DrugWarFacts.org.

My biggest problem with the billboard isn’t the lie.  It’s that you and I paid for it.

That’s right, that billboard on the outskirts of my hometown, like many probably displayed around your hometown, are funded by grants from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.  In 1997 the Drug Free Communities Act was signed by President Clinton.  Grants are given to local community anti-drug organizations, like the “Molalla Coalition Against Drug Crime”.  Last year, ONDCP gave out $74 million in grants to 736 of these orgs around the country.

I called the contact name for the Molalla grant (5 SP011449-04) to try to find out how much the billboard cost and the amount of the federal grant, but she wasn’t very interested in speaking to me once I told her I was a journalist doing a story on government anti-drug grants.  I hadn’t even gotten to the point of telling her I was from NORML before she was hanging up.  But if we just take a simple average, it’s about $100,000 per organization.

I also looked up one of the leading (read: expensive) rehab centers in Oregon, Serenity Lane, and found out that a 28-day intensive inpatient drug rehab service costs $11,900.  So, then, with that average grant of $100,000, the average “drug-free” community could pay for eight meth addicts to get drug rehab.  The entire $74 million would treat 6,218 meth addicts, or just over 1% of the entire monthly meth-using population of the US (about 529,000 meth addicts).

Or they could blow it all on a marijuana gateway drug lie on a billboard.  (Hey, if marijuana use is such a “gateway”, how come there are 14 million monthly stoners but only half a million monthly tweekers?  Looks like only 1 out of 28 stoners found their way through the gate!)