(AP) EL PASO, Texas — The eight bullets that leveled Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana outside his home just doors from the city’s police chief were fired at close range and left little doubt about their message.

Gonzalez, a Juarez cartel lieutenant shot on his quiet El Paso cul-de-sac this spring, was working for U.S. officials as a confidential informant, sources told The Associated Press, and experts suspect his slaying may be the first time assassins from one of Mexico’s violent drug gangs have killed a ranking cartel member on American soil.

Cartel-affiliated hit men have violently, and fatally, disciplined low-level, American-based drug dealers in the U.S. But El Paso police said Gonzalez was a lieutenant in the Juarez cartel, which traffics in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. The cartel was once among the most dangerous in Mexico, but has recently lost some standing because of arrests, deaths and infighting.

El Paso police don’t yet have an official motive in Gonzalez’s slaying, but chief Allen said detectives are working on the assumption that a cartel colleague discovered he was discussing their illegal activities with federal agents.

How many gangland-style executions will have to take place on American streets before we get serious about legalizing these murderers right out of business?  I hear a few people complain about taxing and regulating marijuana as a legal substance because then the big bad ol’ government will have its hands on it, but last I checked the IRS doesn’t send hit men out to quiet residential neighborhoods to deliver a “message” about delinquent tax payments.

(Dayton Daily News) “The trend in several of the homicides and even non-fatal shootings is that they’re related to marijuana use and sales,” said Dayton Lt. Patrick Welsh said. “That’s been an unusual uptick.”

In the past few years, Welsh said, many homicides occurred either around or because of the trafficking of heroin and cocaine.

Now, marijuana seems to be the dangerous drug. Police believe, for instance, that the suspect or suspects who shot and killed 22-year-old Richard Pogue Jr. on June 3 were possibly attempting to rob a home on Kingsley Avenue because they thought there was marijuana inside.

Two men were killed in a home at 515 N. Broadway St. that police believe could have been a place to buy marijuana.

But the amounts of marijuana involved in the incidents are relatively small, Welsh said.

No, marijuana is not the dangerous drug; prohibition of marijuana is the dangerous policy.  This should show people that the half-steppin’ measure of decriminalization is only a stop-gap measure at best and a long-term policy disaster at worst.

Ohio has the most liberal decriminalization law, one that allows individuals to possess up to 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) of cannabis.  But all decriminalization does is legalize the demand side while still criminalizing the supply side.  As this story shows, decriminalized marijuana is still illegal to buy and sell and cultivate and traffic — you’re allowed to have 100 grams of marijuana, should it fall out of the skies and into your hands.  Therefore the market in marijuana is as illegal as ever, with the concomitant effects of scarcity and risk driving up the price to the point it is worth robbing and shooting people over.

Then, rather than doing the logical thing and moving toward legalization, the cannabiphobes will point to the current robberies and killings under decriminalization and say, “See, marijuana IS a dangerous drug!  We relaxed our laws on pot and look what happened!”

Mr. President, these needless deaths could have been avoided if only you would stop laughing at people who advise you to embrace the idea of legalization.

SULLIVAN CITY – A 17-year-old boy is the only survivor of a police chase that ended in a rollover crash in Sullivan City. Police say the driver of a car refused to stop and the chase was on. They went down the expressway until the driver lost control and crashed near Showers Road.

The car rolled over several times killing the driver, 21-year-old Josh Pena, and a passenger, 18-year-old Pedro Trevino. There’s no word on the condition of the third passenger taken to the hospital. Police found 14 pounds of marijuana in the car.

I think it’s pretty obvious; if Marijuana were legal, these boys would still be alive.

How many more people will the Government kill, murder, execute, and cage (on purpose or accident) before the people of this country awaken to the war the against them and fight back? In case you weren’t aware, the government is at war with the citizens of the United States and these are two more casualties.

[I love this post from Dudemaster, but I can just hear the propaganda-soaked Joe Q. Public saying, "Well, if they didn't run from the cops, they wouldn't have wrecked their car and died."  But Dudemaster is exactly right; do you think these young men would have engaged in a high-speed chase over 14 cases of wine or 14 cases of beer?  Even at age 17, where his possession of wine and beer would be illegal, you can't imagine he'd have run from cops over it, can you?

Marijuana does not create crime.  Prohibition creates crime.  If you enacted decades-long mandatory minimum sentences for possession and sales of chocolate, this police chase and car wreck could've been over 14 pounds of chocolate bricks. -- "R"R]