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That's hilarious! Do you have any others?

Your reply makes no sense in relation to my statement.

We are on the same page.

I'm trying here. I assumed you were disagreeing that many drugs that are now illegal were once legal.

Is your argument instead that illegality resulted from other reasons than drug's harm to people/society?

I don't believe legalizing drugs is the answer. When I grew up in rural Virginia in the 50 & 60's illegal drugs were unknown. I'm sure that some drug use existed in major cities, especially in California, but nationally was a very small problem. A great many people were poor but poverty alone did not drive them to drugs or even alcohol. It seems to me the break down of the family unit with most inner city children not having fathers was a root cause. Welfare & other forms of public assistance became widespread. It was easier to not work at a low end job & receive public assistance. With free housing, food stamps, & welfare drugs were a ready outlet & easily paid for on the governments nickle. With the demand for drugs growing Mexico became a sourse for illegal drug manufacturing. Many in the US learned to grow weed as well as produce illegal drugs to satisify the growing demand. Certainly illegal drug use spawns crime to feed the habit. As a result we have widespread drug use everywhere & growing crime. Even if some drugs were legialized the desire to produce ever more dangerous drugs would still exist. The drug cartels are not going to be put out of business. Without a total change in family values illegal drug use is not going to be stopped. Unless society collapses I see no way to change the spiral.

Yup, and that's because there wasn't an addict/pusher on every block. Desparate people will do ANYTHING to keep the monkey off their back and the #1 Cartel in the country at this time is Purdue Pharma.

I would like to bring back the stocks and whipping, seriously. Caning would also help. These punishments would be for lesser felonies. Might go a long way towards ending repeat offenders.

I find it incredulous that drugs cause crime but guns don't....especially amongst so many drug users. (alcohol and tobacco)

As for the Mob reference earlier, there is no doubt that legalized gambling and the repeal of prohibition took a lot of the wind out of those sails. The mob has been significantly marginalized, however once gambling and prohibition was legalized they 'diversified' into other drugs. Why??

Makes them act like this. With permanent metal damage sometimes. Like schizophrenia in a package

Nah...drugs don't cause crime, they cause people to cause crime.

Damn Crosshair, that dude's ticker just couldn't take anymore abuse..........game over.

Gunner

My position is that there were reasons for outlawing recreational drugs having little to nothing to do with problems they were causing in society. It was quite clear from context what I was saying. You're playing games.

No one will ever convince me that the ARMED FORCES of the U.S.A. cannot stop import of illegal drugs. The reason they are able to penetrate the public is---Everyone in authority is on the take for some money and look the other way.

You got it. There are at least two reasons cops so vigorously want them to remain illegal. Firstly, it's job security. Secondly, it's the "look the other way" money they'd lose were it all legal. The events illustrated in the movie Serpico weren't isolated to the New York City Police Department, unless you believe New York City cops are of a different species from cops elsewhere. Cops aren't as brazen about it anymore, but since human nature hasn't changed since then, it's still going on.

Also, keep in mind that no one is more in favor of drugs staying illegal than the drug importers and drug dealers on the streets. They'd suddenly have to look for other work were drugs legalized.

Stop import? No way. Stop production and cultivation? Sure...but those decisions are made at a level higher than the "ARMED FORCES". Coca and opium poppies are fragile plants that can be erradicated very easily. Ruining the economy of "friendly" countries can't be reconciled so easily.

Yep. The problem is, if you start peeling the layers of that onion, there'd be nothing but a tiny core left. What needs to happen, will nearly certainly never happen. At least not in a way that anybody will like.

Don't be fooled, teh Mob is in no way marginalized. They are still here, still active, and have even more competition from foreign mobs.

Ed

Indeed,...

Italy Drug Sweep Reveals Cosa Nostra Operation in Northern Mexico

Link: http://www.insightcrime.org/insight...cosa-nostra-operation-in-northern-mexico

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A ten-year investigation by Italian authorities into the nation�s drug trafficking networks offers a glimpse into the Italian mafia�s links with Mexican gangsters, and the role that the latter play in the global cocaine trade.

As Proceso recently reported, Italian officials issued 34 arrest warrants in Palermo, which charged members of Sicily�s Cosa Nostra and Naples� Camorra gangs with importing cocaine from Colombia into Europe via Italian ports. The investigation also revealed the presence of a network linked to the Italian groups in Monterrey, which allegedly worked with Mexican traffickers to arrange the shipment of cocaine loads across the Atlantic Ocean.

The network in Monterrey was led by two Italian brothers, Elio and Bruno Gerardi, whose business was ostensibly dedicated to exporting industrial ovens. However, inside the ovens, the group often hid hundreds of tons of cocaine, which, authorities say, were shipped on behalf of the Cosa Nostra. The brothers were originally based in Colombia, but after a shipment to Mexico was seized by Colombian authorities in 2002, the brothers fled the South American nation, and Monterrey turned into a vital center of operations.

The Gerardi brothers remain at large, though several other targets of the investigation, including a number of figures linked to the Cosa Nostra, have been arrested. In addition to the Italians, the investigation also named a handful of Mexicans who participated in Gerardi�s network. It does not, however, say whether the men worked for one of the two principle Monterrey drug cartels -- the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas -- or if they were independent. The investigation also revealed links between the Gerardis� Monterrey-based group and traffickers in Morocco and Poland.

The investigation into the Gerardi operation demonstrates the degree to which Mexico has become a vital actor not merely in the US cocaine supply chain, but in the global drug trade. For a gang dedicated to moving South American cocaine to Europe, there was no inherent need for a Mexican connection, but the centrality of Mexican traffickers to the global trade drew the Gerardis to forge links with Mexican traffickers as early as 2002. The freedom of movement available in Mexico also made the country a logical center of operations following the Gerardis' exit from Colombia. While the Gerardis were investigated by US and Italian authorities, and forced to flee Colombia because of government pressure, there is no evidence of similar heat in Mexico.

Similarly, Mexicans have popped up in drug trafficking investigations around the world. For instance, three brothers from the Pacific state of Sinaloa received a death sentence in Malaysia, after they were arrested in a methamphetamine processing lab in the Asian nation that lies some 8,000 miles from Mexico�s borders (their case remains in the appeal process). In similarly remote Australia, the government fingered Mexican gangs as the nation�s foremost cocaine suppliers. Mexican gangsters have operated in South America for years, and have also popped up in Africa, a staging area for shipments that later make the leap to Europe.

The most important structural factors driving the Mexican groups� relevance to the global trade include the nation�s proximity to the US, the world�s largest cocaine market, and the weakness of Mexico's criminal justice institutions. As a result of the first factor, Mexican gangsters have grown fabulously rich and have established deep logistical networks emanating from South American producer nations, qualities that are useful in trafficking cocaine anywhere around the globe. Thanks to the second factor mentioned above, the Mexican gangs have long enjoyed a significant degree of impunity. Because it is relatively unlikely that arrests will interrupt drug-smuggling operations, the Mexican organizations can thrive for years, if not decades, and in so doing accumulate vast amounts of institutional knowledge and personal relationships that are invaluable in carrying out illicit activities.

This is also not the first time Mexico has featured prominently in an investigation into Italian drug networks. In 2008, hundreds of people linked either to Calabria�s 'Ndrangheta and the Zetas and Gulf Cartel (which, at that point, were part of the same organization) were arrested for their alleged role in a cocaine-trafficking ring. As the book "Contacto En Italia" demonstrates, much of the cocaine was shipped from New York, and all of it came from South America, yet, despite the lack of geographic relevance, the Mexicans were the key suppliers.

Italy is also plays an important role in the European cocaine trade, for reasons that in some ways mirror Mexico�s in the Western Hemisphere. Just as Mexico serves as the gatekeeper to the US, Italy, with its long coastlines and huge ports like Naples, is a logical entry point for cocaine, heroin, and other drugs on their way into the larger European market. And just as Mexican organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel are some of the hemisphere�s most venerable, Italian groups like the Cosa Nostra are among the oldest and most notorious gangs on the continent.

The police sure did everything to save his life.

Not much to criticize, there, though you have to wonder what the hog tying was for. Likely added enough stress to kill him in that condition. Good emergency medical aid once he was unconscious. I also wonder if he'd have been Tasered to death while handcuffed if that camera hadn't been there, up close and personal. One of the cops seemed pretty eager to pull trigger for a Tasing. A high ranking supervisor being there might also have been the reason he didn't pull the trigger.