Under Kerlikowske's reasoning, we never should have repealed Alcohol Prohibition, since alcohol made up less than 50% of Al Capone's overall profits.

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake has posted video of the Just Say Now! campaign delivering a legalization petition to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske.  Since the drug czar is required by law to oppose all legalization efforts, it is a bit like petitioning the Pope to bless an orgy, but it does make for some entertaining video:

(FireDogLake) This morning I joined with members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and delivered 52,000 petition signatures to drug czar Gil Kerlikowske on behalf of the Just Say Now campaign.

Daniel Pacheco, a Georgetown University student from Colombia and a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, handed the petition to  Kerlikowske at a press conference held by his office at the National Press Club.  The petition asks President Obama to end the war on drugs and legalize marijuana.

Daniel asked Kerlikowske why he opposed legalizing marijuana, since President Calderon of Mexico has said it could be helpful in fighting the Mexican drug cartels. Kerlikowske said that since marijuana comprised such a small percentage of drug cartel profits, legalizing marijuana would not have any impact on their activity.

“I don’t think that if they lose a small part of their revenue from legalizing marijuana that they’re going to go to work for Coca Cola or Microsoft,” he chuckled.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ha ha ha!  Oh, that jokester!  So, the idea here is that since legalizing marijuana won’t put them out of business, we should continue to subsidize part of their business?  Because our prohibition of marijuana leads to the high price Americans pay for weed they could grow themselves, subsidizing the high profits the Mexicans make on marijuana, and then our tax dollars subsidize the Merida Initiative that buys more helicopters, drones, surveillance, ammunition, and police to fight the traffickers!  We also help arm both sides of the drug war, with official grants of weapons to the “good guys” and plenty of gun shops just over the border whose guns end up in the hands of the “bad guys”.

So, since the Mexican criminals are unlikely to go to work for Coca Cola or Microsoft if we take away their puny marijuana profits, we should continue to make criminals out of Americans who smoke a joint, Mr. Kerlikowske?

Ryan Grim at Huffington Post digs deeper into Kerlikowske’s new song and dance about the “small part” of Mexican drug trafficking organizations’ profits from marijuana:

(Huffington Post) Instead of defending the principle of prohibition, Kerlikowske quibbled with Pacheco’s statistic on how much of the cartel’s revenue comes from marijuana. “The number that has been often cited in the press — 58 to 60 percent of cartel revenues comes — was introduced by ONDCP in 2006. Unfortunately, the history is that it was based on 1997 information,” Kerlikowske said. “Everyone that recognizes these cartels clearly understands that their revenues have changed a lot since 1997. There are different drugs, they are involved with different criminal enterprises, so people that continue — and we really reject trying to continue to use a number that is now 13 to 14 years old, about how much money comes from marijuana. So, we strongly believe we see significantly less than the numbers cited from 14 years ago.”

Testimony to the Senate from both the FBI and DEA, however, confirmed the 60-percent figure in 2010.

How low a percentage of overall profits must marijuana reap before it’s no longer worth taking that business from the criminals?  30%?  15%?  5%?  Suppose we were talking about crippling Al Qaeda.  Do you suppose if we discovered an easy way to reduce the funding of terrorists by even five percent that our government officials would be dismissing the idea, simply because those terrorists wouldn’t then be forced to work at Starbucks?

Nobody thinks legalizing marijuana in America is suddenly going to turn murderous torturing drug trafficking criminals into Boy Scouts.  Surely most criminals are going to be criminals and will find new criminal enterprises if we legalize marijuana… but some won’t.  Some may become the new Joe Kennedys who turn their prohibited business into a lucrative legal business.  The question is whether we want to continue to give criminals a lucrative illegal business when there is no compelling reason to do so.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Felipe Calderon said he would consider a debate on legalizing drugs Tuesday as his government announced that more than 28,000 people have been killed in drug violence since he launched a crackdown against cartels in 2006.

Three former presidents — Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil — urged Latin American countries last year to consider legalizing marijuana to undermine a major source of income for cartels. And Mexico’s congress also has debated the issue.

But Calderon has long said he is opposed to the idea, and his office issued a statement hours after the meeting saying that while the president was open to debate on the issue, he remains “against the legalization of drugs.”

I don’t understand how you claim to want a debate on changing the status quo while stating you don’t want to change the status quo.  If you’re wanting a debate, how can it be an honest dialog when you’ve made up your mind already?  How is this any different than saying, “Oh, we’re still keeping drugs illegal, but we’ll let you all talk about legalization instead of just laughing it away.”

It’s not Mexico that needs to legalize marijuana, though I’d be happy for them if they did.  That 60% of Mexican drug cartel income is not coming from Mexicans smoking brick weed, it’s coming from Americans, particularly those Americans in parts of the country that are more draconian in their war on marijuana.

(Bilal Ali Productions) Coordinated attacks in at least eight Mexican cities killed three federal police officers and two soldiers Saturday in what officials are calling an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs

Another 18 federal officers were wounded, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing federal police official Rodolfo Cruz Lopez.

The attacks were in retribution for the capture early Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacan Family), Notimex reported.

Following his arrest Saturday morning in Morelia, Michoacan, men armed with high-powered rifles and grenades attacked the police station where he was being held, the Secretary of Public Security said.

After failing to win his freedom, members of the group launched attacks in the cities of Morelia, Zitacuaro, Zamora, Lazaro Cardenas, Apatzingan, La Piedad and Huetamo in Michoacan state, Notimex news said, citing federal police.

Saturday’s attacks came just days after a drug gang in Tijuana declared they were at war with police, threatening to kill five officers every week until Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns.

The threat was made in a note found on the windshield of a slain officer’s car, news reports said.

At least three Tijuana officers have been killed since Monday, reports said. Leyzaola, a former army colonel, replaced a police chief removed from office in December after receiving numerous threats.

When you question our drug warriors about the rising tide of violence south of the border, they will claim that all these dead Mexicans – civilians, soldiers, police, and drug gangs – are a sign of progress.  They’ll tell you that the drug cartels are desperate because Mexican law enforcement is bringing the hammer down on them, so the cartels are reacting with increased violence, and the more bloody and violent they get, the more desperate they are.  They might even say we’ve “turned the corner” on this insurgency, the drug cartels are in their “last throes”, and “the surge is working.”

Somehow I don’t think that eases the pain of a Mexican madre who just lost her mio in the crossfire of a cartel / federal gun battle because American moralists can’t stand the thought of someone lighting up some Acapulco Gold instead of chugging a beer.

Surprise, Surprise!

The bill, proposed by conservative President Felipe Calderon, would make it legal to carry up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine and tiny quantities of other drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines.

Mexico’s Congress passed a similar proposal in 2006 but the bill was vetoed by Calderon’s predecessor Vicente Fox, under pressure from the United States, which said it would increase drug abuse, but now is worried by the drug-related violence along its border.

Mexican President Calderon was praised by U.S. President Barack Obama this month for his military assaults on cartels during a visit to the Mexican capital. President Obama pledged more soldiers to the American side of the border to hamper the flow of guns to the cartels.

The bill, which needs to be approved by the lower house, also allows Mexican states to convict small-time drug dealers, no longer making it a federal crime to peddle drugs. Drug dealers are rarely convicted in Mexico as federal courts are saturated with bigger cases and local judges cannot interfere.

Let’s face it, our prohibition created the problem in Mexico, and our Prohibition is going to destroy Mexico. As a recent military retiree, I spent more than 7 years living in South America conducting foreign internal defense and anti-narcotic or eradication missions during the 1980′s and early 1990′s. This law will greatly improve the lives of the impoverished, and will “begin to take steps in a positive direction”.

After wearing a uniform for more than 20 years, I have little patience for ignorance or stupidity. The latter can be cured, but the former is usually terminal.

With this in mind; I direct this question to my Congressional Representative, the terminally ignorant Honorable Congressman (Dr.) Michael Burgess.

In light of all the factual scientific evidence in regards to the “Drug War” being a dismal failure, and in light of all of the medically relevant scientific evidence, patents, and science based companies researching more medical uses of Cannabis, why are you still standing on broken and irrelevant arguments?

“Marijuana is a controlled substance and legalizing or relaxing criminal penalties will only open the doors for further illegal activities.” “modern day scourge.”

Hmmmm, is that stupidity, ignorance or perhaps cowardice? I’ll let you, the reader, decide.

In the meantime, let’s educate our politicians and teach them that Marijuana is not a poison, but rather a non-toxic substance that all Americans should have the right to choose as a safer alternative to alcohol.

Mexico’s Gulf Cartel may have 40 bulletproof vests emblazoned with “FBI” and “DEA” to trick their drug-trafficking rivals, according to a new law enforcement advisory.

Baseball caps and T-shirts with the agencies’ names long have been a fad among everyday citizens, but ballistic armor raises the stakes and concerns, officials said.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Mike Sanders said that during his nearly 20-year career, he’s only heard of a handful of times when criminals imitated agents, but never by wearing vests.

While impersonating U.S. law enforcement officers would seem unusual in Mexico, drug cartel operatives there long have disguised themselves as Mexican federal agents, police and soldiers to carry out attacks or kidnap rivals.

via Mexican cartel upgrades with ‘FBI,’ ‘DEA’ bulletproof vests | Front page | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

It’s 11:30pm.  You and your wife are in bed, your infant daughter sleeps in the room next door.  You are working class and cannot afford any better place to live than your non-descript home in a bad part of town.  You hear shuffling outside, thinking you’re seeing shadows of men rushing past your property.  You’ve followed the terrifying news stories of home invasion robberies, so you purchased a handgun and keep it locked up in the nightstand.  You see another shadow, causing you to unlock the case and load the weapon.  You wake your wife and tell her to grab your daughter and head to the basement.  You get a robe on are about to investigate when the door bursts open.  You’re disoriented by the shouting of black-clad masked men commanding you to get on the floor.  Your wife and baby are screaming and the men with guns run toward them.  The men’s body armor has big FBI or DEA letters on them.

Did you shoot anyone?  Did they see your gun and shoot you?  Do your wife and child get hit in any crossfire?  Most of all, are those actually law enforcement officers with a mistaken address on a warrant, or Mexican cartel thugs who have the wrong address for a “hit”?  These are things most of us can only imagine, but something real people like Cory Maye suffer every year.

Mr. Calderón and his security team argue that the violence shows the desperation of the cartels as the government dismantles them. The D.E.A. agrees that the cartels are in their death throes, but it says it expects the violence to get worse in the near future.

An effort is under way to change laws to make it easier to seize businesses that are linked to traffickers, but it has been bogged down by fierce political infighting. “We keep hearing we’re going to win,” Víctor Hugo Círigo Vásquez, the speaker of the Mexico City Assembly, said to a reporter recently. “That’s what the U.S. president said in Vietnam.”

There are calls for a completely new approach. One of Mr. Calderón’s predecessors, Mr. Zedillo, recently joined two other former heads of state from Latin America in pushing for a complete rethinking of the drug war, including the legalization of marijuana, which is considered the top revenue generator for Mexican drug cartels.

Mexico is nowhere near such a transformative step as legalizing drugs, which would cut drug profits but also might cause use to soar. Still, there are initiatives on the horizon.

Three years ago, the Mexican Congress passed a plan to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of cocaine and other drugs, but Vicente Fox, then the president, killed the bill after American officials raised an alarm. Mr. Calderón made a similar proposal last fall, albeit lowering the amounts still further, and this time American officials did not utter a peep.

via – The New York Times “In Drug War, Mexico Fights Cartel and Itself“

Pat begins by making a bold prediction:

Prediction: After all U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a U.S. army on the Mexican border. For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided, as the fate of Europe will be decided by the millions streaming north from the Maghreb and Middle East, sub-Sahara and South Asia.

So narco-traffickers are the same to him as Muslims “invading” Europe and destroying it’s culture. He then goes to the numbers: 6,000 drug related killings, 6,000 troops and police moved to the border. Recounting the story of Chief Roberto Oduna of Juarez and the killing of a retired army general sent to create an elite anti-crime unit in Cancun leads him to the conclusion that the Mexican government is corrupt.

Far be it for Pat Buchanan to be pollyanna-ish, he put his finger on the demand side of both the equation and the border. It is the US demand for drugs that is fueling this violence. Pat then boils down the responses to this crisis into the best description I have yet seen by a conservative.

There are two sure ways to end this war swiftly: Milton’s way and Mao’s way. Mao Zedong’s communists killed users and suppliers alike, as social parasites. Milton Friedman’s way is to decriminalize drugs and call off the war.

So, begrudgingly he chooses Milton’s Way, because we as a society cannot take the pain of our own government killing 30+ Million of it’s own citizens (by comparison the US lost 1/2 Million in all of World War 2).

Which is the greater evil? Legalized narcotics for America’s young or a failed state of 110,000 million on our southern border? Some choice. Some country we’ve become.

This isn’t a resounding call for the principals that Milton laid out, but a decision based on the fear of a Mexican narco state. So the conservative Republican “War on Drugs” dies a whimpering death in the mind of Pat Buchanan.

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.

EL PASO – Mexican cartels have taken over most of the drug trade in the United States, and are working with 20 gangs, including the Barrio Aztecas, according to a just-released report by the National Drug Intelligence Center titled “National Drug Threat Assessment 2009.”

It also said the cartels control drug distribution in most U.S. cities (230 cities have reported a presence of the Mexican drug groups), and “are gaining strength in markets that they do not yet control.”

Mexican, Asian, Colombian, Dominican and Colombian drug organizations work with at least 28 gangs in the United States, which insulate the drug cartel cells from law enforcement and act as retail distributors and enforcers. The gangs listed include the Barrio Azteca, Latin Kings, Maras (MS-13), Hells Angels, Mexican Mafia, Bloods, Crips and others.

via Mexican cartels run U.S. drug trade, report says – El Paso Times.

Upon learning that violent foreign criminal cartels are taking over the US drug trade and extending their control through recruitment of violent local gangs to handle the retail operations, the prohibitionists’ answer is to fight them harder.  Never does it occur to the prohibitionist that WE could take over most of the drug trade in the United States and cut 70% off the Mexican drug cartel’s bottom line!

People will always want to smoke marijuana – we have cannabinoid receptors in our freakin’ brains.  The money people spend on it could buy schoolbooks for kids, but our prohibition on marijuana guarantees it buys bullets for gangsters.  (Maybe if we bought more kids history textbooks, they’d grow up having learned the lessons of prohibition from 1920-1933.)