Proposition 19: Legalizing Marijuana And Keeping It On A Short Leash
A photograph of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.
A photograph of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.
California’s Battle With Marijuana
It seems like a lifetime since the first gunshot that sounded the war on California soil took place. Now, this war on drugs has taken a drastic turn. November the 2nd marks the final showdown between California and its ancient rival, marijuana. A ballot called Proposition 19 was posted for California residents to vote on. If this proposition should pass, then the government will gain the ability to legalize, regulate, control, and tax this green monster. It seemed that the commotion leading to this day would see to the victory of the infamous cannabis. But it seems that California people were not ready for it after all.
The Green Light For Marijuana
There are many benefits to legalize marijuana for both economic reasons and social reasons. The proposition allows the taxation and regulation of cannabis. According to the OB Rag website, California will get $1.4 billion from taxes and save $200 million from law enforcement efforts on arresting cannabis users and shutting down plantations. At this time that is a very big boost to the downtrodden economy of California. This also prevents the useless imprisonment of people who poses marijuana. Many good people smoke cannabis and only indulge in it like any other vice. However, when they get imprisoned, the people around them end up suffering. Most of these people don’t deserve such a punishment just for indulging in what research shows is a less harmful drug than cigarettes.
The Red Light For Marijuana
With those benefits, it seems like a sound plan to legalize marijuana. Yet, so many people oppose it. Even some regular cannabis users oppose it. According to ‘Stoners Against The Prop. 19” Tax Cannabis Initiative’, “they believe this would make marijuana less legal in a way.” That is because the government would be the one regulating this product. This means that corporations will be pushing out the small marijuana distributors and minimizing the free business that pot dealers and pot smokers enjoy. For most marijuana users, the last thing they want is Marlboro Man for cannabis. Many also believe that the last thing we need is another legal drug flowing in our blood stream. The minorities in California are already kept down by alcoholism and other drugs. They believe legalizing marijuana will set them back severely.
The Outcome Of The Final Battle
It has been a struggle of epic proportions for both sides. At the start, many Californians were for the idea of the legalization of cannabis. When it came down to it, the dream of legal weed was just that, a dream and a broken promise. The things that regular marijuana users wanted were not delivered. This caused pro-pot users to vote “no” on prop 19. It was a start in the right direction, but balancing drugs and law is always a tricky act. It seemed this time the scales tipped towards law far more than drugs. According to the LA Times, voters are rejecting the idea of prop 19. Let’s hope in the future they will have a better proposition that benefits everyone.
References:
http://votetaxcannabis2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-pro-pot-activists-oppose-2010-tax.html
United States’ Envoy Stephen Bosworth On North Korea To Visit Asia To Discuss North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program
5MWe Experimental Reactor inYongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center in North Korea
United States’ Envoy Stephen Bosworth on North Korea plans visiting Asian countries, China, Japan, and South Korea, as satellite images reveal North Korea’s plans of building a nuclear power reactor are underway. American experts Siegfried Hecker, United States’ Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory former director and Jack Pritchard, United States’ former envoy to North Korea, said construction of a uranium facility and a light power reactor have begun. Stephen Bosworth will first arrive on Seoul on a two-day trip before moving on to Tokyo and Beijing, to discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program
North Korea’s nuclear weapon’s program has sparked interest among other countries, particularly the United States, with which it has entered an Agreement Framework in 1994. The Agreement Framework was intended to further the aims of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty by limiting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. In return the United States would give the Asian country nuclear fuel oil to power its reactors and support North Korea’s electricity needs.
North Korea has started pursuing nuclear technology in 1956. North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung asked Russia and China for nuclear technology. For decades nothing tangible came out of it until October 9, 2006, when the North Korean government announced the success of its first nuclear test in Kilju. It conducted its second nuclear test on May 25, 2009. American, Japanese, and South Korean geological authorities detected an earthquake with a seismological magnitude of 4.5 to 5.3.
North Korea’s two operating nuclear reactors are both located in Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. An IRT-2000 research reactor and a 5Mwe gas-graphite moderated Magnox type reactor have been used for its plutonium separation experiments and plutonium production, respectively. The country also has two partially constructed graphite moderated reactors, a 50 and a 200 Mwe nuclear reactor, supposed to produce annually 60 and 220 kilograms of plutonium, respectively. Sixty kilograms of plutonium can make ten nuclear weapons, while two hundred and twenty kilograms of the chemical is enough to produce forty nuclear weapons. Construction of the two new reactors was halted since North Korea entered an Agreement Framework with the United States.
North Korea And United States’ Agreement Framework
North Korea accepted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on December 12, 1985. On March 12, 1993, the country first voiced its withdrawal from the treaty, but only actualized its withdrawal on April 10, 2003. The country withdrew from the treaty after United States’ Central Intelligence Agency alleged the country has been harboring an illegal enriched uranium program, which led to United States’ stoppage of nuclear fuel oil shipments to North Korea, as agreed in the Framework. United States’ intelligence officials claimed Pakistan provided key nuclear information and technology to North Korea, in exchange for missile technology.
The Agreement Framework between the United States of America and North Korea, also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, was signed on the 21st day of October 1994. Under the Agreement Framework, United States would supply North Korea with 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil every year for electricity and heating purposes until two 1,000MW light water reactors are constructed, to replace North Korea’s indigenous nuclear power plant program and its reactors, which could produce plutonium needed in making nuclear weapons. Furthermore, the framework gave the International Atomic Energy Agency license to conduct routine inspections on the country’s active nuclear facilities.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), tasked in helping implement the Framework, was persuaded by the United States to cease fuel oil shipments to North Korea, which marked North Korea’s reactivation of its nuclear fuel processing program and its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty. The KEDO’s suspension of fuel oil shipments led to the end of the Agreement Framework. The North Korean government has forbidden United Nations’ inspectors in its nuclear sites.
References:
Wikileaks On ‘Red’ Notice
Wikileaks founder, editor-in-chief, spokesperson and Internet activist, Julian Assange, has been issued a red notice by Interpol on November 30, 2010.
Wikileaks founder, editor-in-chief, spokesperson and Internet activist, Julian Assange, has been issued a red notice by Interpol on November 30, 2010.
WikiLeaks on ‘Red’ Notice
Whistleblower website WikiLeaks is on ‘red’ notice. Also, its founder, editor-in-chief, and spokesperson, Australian Internet activist, Julian Assange is wanted for two women’s alleged molestation and rape in Sweden. Interpol has issued him a ‘red notice’, the closest thing to an international warrant arrest. WikiLeaks, of which Assange is editor-in-chief, released on November 28, 2010 251, 287 information leaks on United States’ embassy cables, 15,652 of which are classified as ‘Secret’. The leaks point the spotlight on world leaders and United States’ diplomatic concerns. The site has been under cyber attack, being plummeted with distributed denial of service (DDOS), to prevent user accessibility of the site.
WikiLeaks Profile
International, non-profit, media organization Wikileaks was launched in 2006 and made its first Internet appearance on January 2007, when it announced its plans of releasing 1.2 million documents. The site cites its frontline interest in exposing regime oppression in Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the former Soviet bloc and to assist people in revealing corporation and government unethical conduct. It seeks to protect journalists and whistleblowers from prison for sending through electronic mail classified information. It has around 1,200 registered volunteers in June 2009. Its advisory board consists of Julian Assange, Ben Laurice, C.J. Hinke, Chico Whitaker, Phillip Adams, Tashi Namgyal Khamsitsang, Wang Dan, Wang Youcai, and Xiang Qiang. It currently has five full-time workers and eight hundred part-time workers, who all work for free. The organization has no official headquarters. Its central server is located in Sweden, where no administrative authority has the right to inquire about the sources of any newspaper. It uses military-grade encryption to secure confidential information and sources.
WikiLeaks Online Publishing Protocol
Originally, WikiLeaks online publishing protocol says contributors can post documents and files ‘anonymously and untraceably’. Public discussion and analysis of information’s context, credibility, and truthfulness are encouraged. Collective publication, contextual interpretations, and comprehensive explanations of leaks are allowed for both reader and writer users of the site. However, to prevent spamming and unscrupulous publication of confidential information, anonymous WikiLeaks’s reviewers reject documents deviating from its editorial policy ‘of political, diplomatic, historical, or ethical interest.’ Five reviewers study a contributor’s background, whose identity is known. These five reviewers are masters of fields in language or computer programming. Julian Assange has the final say regarding a document’s assessment. As of 2010, users are no longer allowed to post comments on leaks.
WikiLeaks Previous Online Published Classified Documents
WikiLeaks online published classified documents began with Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys signed document planning the assassination of government official in December 2006. It leaked information to British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ in 2007 about former Kenyan leader’s Daniel arap Moi’s family’s corruption. United States’ Army’s 2004 edition of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp’s manual protocol was publicized in December 3, 2007. Its previous publication of the U.S. army’s 2003 Gitmo protocol revealed some Gitmo detainee’s unavailability to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which the United State’s military has several timed denied. During the 2008 campaigns for the presidential elections, Sarah Palin, who was then running for vice-presidency, was revealed to have used Yahoo’s private email account to send work-related electronic messages against public record policies. The site published in 2009 more than six hundred United Nations reports, of which sixty were classified as ‘strictly confidential and six thousand and seven hundred and eighty Congressional Research Service reports; eight-six telephone recordings of Peru’s businessmen and politicians related to the Petrogate Oil Scandal; and the ‘Minton Report, about toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast – United Nations report 108,000 people have been affected by the dumping of toxic wastage, some of which could cause harm at a distance, from which burns to the eyes, lungs, and skin, loss of consciousness, and death were among the results from ‘a significant release of hydrogen sulphide gas’.
WikiLeaks 2010 Online Published Classified Documents
WikiLeaks released a classified United States’ Department of Defense Counterintelligence Anaylysis report dating from March of 2008. It details America’s security concerns, plans of weeding out whistleblowers, and human rights violation in Gitmo. It released on April 2010 a secret video footage, titled ‘Collateral Murder’, of a United States’ helicopter attack in Baghdad, which led to twelve casualties. The helicopter pilots thought the men, whom they fired at and killed, carried weapons. Bradley Manning’s arrest, alleged to have leaked the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, followed the release of ‘Collateral Murder’. In July WikiLeaks published what Assange compared to ‘The Pentagon Papers’ – the Afghan War Diary. It also released the more than 92,000 documents to ‘The Guardian’, ‘The New York Times’, and ‘Der Speigel’. The Afghan War Diary is a compilation of documents on the war in Afghanistan from 2004 until 2009, including civilian deaths. 15,000 of the 92,000 war documents are still being extensively reviewed by WikiLeaks, to protect informants whose lives will be put at risk. WikiLeaks has also contacted the White House, before the war documents were released in July, to sift out whose names might cause any violation of the law of war. The White House was silent about it and did not respond. A spokesman of Taliban said the group has formed a commission to go over the war documents and find out who, among the 1,800 Afghans in their ‘Wanted List’, are in the documents WikiLeaks released.
WikiLeaks Released United States’ Classified Diplomatic Cables
WikiLeaks released on November 28, 2010 United States’ classified diplomatic cables. The cables show world leaders’ security interests and personalities. The leak consists of 251,287 documents from communications between 274 embassies worldwide, 15,652 of which are classified as ‘secret’. The leaks revealed United States’ machinations, employing pressure on Afghanistan hot spots; United States’, Saudi Arabia’s, and Israel’s growing fears of Iran’s nuclear program; United States’ concerns regarding Pakistan’s atomic weaponry; and United States’ stand on a united Korea to solve the aggression in North Korea. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia prodded the United States to launch an attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear program and discourage the Middle East country’s nuclear ambitions. Leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates considered Iran, evil. Bahrain’s and Jordan’s officials support any means that will put a permanent lid on Iran’s nuclear program. Furthermore, the documents reveal United States’ and South Korea’s discussion of North Korea’s collapse from economic troubles; United States’ measures of urging Pakistani officials to remove from its reactor highly enriched uranium; United States’ asking Slovenia to take America’s Gitmo detainees if its leader wants to meet President Barrack Obama; several million dollar offers to the Pacific Island of Kiribati to accept Gitmo detainees; a memo instructing United States’ diplomats to obtain United Nations officials’ credit card numbers, frequent flyer numbers, and passwords to the Internet. Two days before the diplomatic cables were released, Julian Assange sent a letter through his lawyer to the United States’ Department of State, to protect people who might be put at harm by the cables. Legal Adviser of the Department of State, Harold Koh retaliated, saying United States will not be involved in any negotiation on the distribution of United States’ classified documents, which were illegally obtained.
References:
The Illegal Trafficking Of Bear Gallbladders
One of Asia’s five Bear Subspecies – the Asiatic Black Bear. Its gallbladder is harvested to procure bile acid tauro ursodeoxycholic acid or UDCA. Bears are the only mammals known to produce great amounts of the bile acid especially used in traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese medical sources recommend Asiatic Black Bear’s bile.
One of Asia’s five Bear Subspecies – the Asiatic Black Bear. Its gallbladder is harvested to procure bile acid tauro ursodeoxycholic acid or UDCA. Bears are the only mammals known to produce great amounts of the bile acid especially used in traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese medical sources recommend Asiatic Black Bear’s bile.
Bear Gallbladders
Bear gallbladders are coveted for its bile acid. Tauro Ursodeoxycholic Acid or UDCA is the acid found in seven bear subspecies’ gallbladders. The Giant Panda is the only exception, for it does not produce UDCA. UDCA is used for the treatment of different types of cancer, general kinds of pain, asthma, burns, sinusitis, and liver damage. It is because of these that bears are hunted down, raised in farms, and eventually slaughtered to harvest its gallbladders, which bile are needed to supply the black-market.
Illegal Trafficking of Bear Gallbladders
Illegal trafficking of bear gallbladders exist. One hundred tons of UDCA are consumed by China, Japan, and South Korea annually. This comprises more than half of the global consumption of UDCA. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) bans from international commercial trade the Asiatic Black Bear, Brown Bear, Sloth Bear, and the Sun Bear. However, bear bile is widely produced and publicly sold in China, Macau, and the Sino-Russian Border. Some Hong Kong stores sell bear gallbladder without a license, which the country has required for the importation, exportation, sale, and possession of bear gallbladder and bile acid since January 1994. Most stores in Seoul, South Korea are familiar with bear gallbladder and bile acid trade, although their stocks are kept hidden and locked. The importation, exportation, display, and sale of bear gallbladders is prohibited in Taiwan. Only American Black Bear parts and derivatives are allowed with government approval to enter trade. Bear bile is worth $400-600 in domestic markets, shooting thirty times more than that in Asian drugstores, where it is available in powdered form. Its liquid form sells for $25 per teaspoon.
Bear Gallbladder Uses
Bear gallbladder has life-saving uses. Its bile acid is milked and used to treat terminal illnesses and minor ailments or discomforts, ranging from cancer to pain. It is also used for the treatment of gallstones, poor eyesight, and rheumatism. In China, ten thousand kilograms of bile are being milked annually from bears in its farms intended for the harvesting of bile acid. Bear Bile has been listed in the first official drug handbook or manual in China around 659 A.D., as a medicine. The Asiatic Black Bear and the Brown Bear are especially patronized and recommended in Chinese medicinal sources. East Asia, being the place where bear bile is widely demanded, is the world’s ‘red-light district’ for mass bear slaughters. Thus, East Asia’s bears are in danger of extinction from the commercial demand of their bile, hunting, and the destruction of their habitats.
References:
http://allaboutnews.net/bear-gallbladder-uses/2228/
http://timesofindia.hotklix.com/link/News/World/Black-Bear-Gall-Bladder-Uses
Irish Terror Still Persists in Ireland
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Hostilities and conflict in Northern Ireland have been present for a long time that people these days forgot the root cause of it. John Soule, a political scientist, studying this ongoing conflict, declared that, the conflict can be considered as a ritual wherein both sides are locked in a dance and cannot pull out of it. Using observations and interviews, he also stipulated that new recruits to the terrorist movements are being fueled by hatred and motivated by the desire to avenge fallen comrades, becoming oblivious to the original political purpose of the conflict.
Collaboration With The Moderates
Governments are sometimes known to have collaboration with the moderates inside the terrorist circles. If the government offers a deal to a heterogeneous terrorist organization, the leaders of that terrorist group will not hesitate to accept that deal. However, if the deal goes right and the moderate leaders’ returns to the government, the terrorists are left into the influence of the extremists who can lead to increase activities of militant groups and widespread terrorist violence.
Nevertheless, if the deal goes smoothly, then the government can require former terrorists who switched over to their side to help in counter-terrorism efforts and with their technical know-how, can improve the government’s chance in eliminating the terrorist threat.
Terrorists Groups Are Known To Have Internal Conflicts
Terrorist groups are also known to have internal conflicts, since the moderate leaders are more likely to accept government deals than the extremists’ leaders. While extremists’ leaders lead terrorist activities, moderates are seen to engage in less violence. When the government offers a deal to the moderates, they leave the group and allow the extremists to take over making the group more dangerous than before. This results in an increase in terrorist activities utilizing all the resources left by moderate leaders who turned to the government’s side.
Big Challenges When Confronting Acts Of Violence
Democratic states these days face big challenges when confronting acts of violence considered as terrorism. An over-reactive approach to the situation can alienate the population and damage the legitimacy of the government (which becomes more damaging than the terrorists’ activities). The credibility and capability of upholding the law by the police, the military and the government will also be undermined, when they prove incapable of handling such an event. The acts of violence must be approached in a steady, careful but immediate response with a positive result to maintain public confidence.
Anti-Terrorism Crime And Security Act
In the United Kingdom, a new law was passed called the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act after their success in handling the terrorists’ bombings and killings during the conflict in Northern Ireland. This act allows the government to detain indefinitely, without trial, a non-national suspected of being capable of or implicated in terrorist activity. However, according to the British Law Lords, they ruled that, “because only foreigners could be detained in this way, such an anti-terrorist law was discriminatory, disproportionate, and unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights.”
References:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39343727/ns/world_news-europe/
Right of Information
(AP Photo/Bell County Sheriffs Department, File)
(AP Photo/Bell County Sheriffs Department, File)
Right To Information
The Right to know is a cherished freedom in any libertarian democracy. It is the basis of accountability of government, transparency in its operations, and the public trust that characterizes public office. The working of democratic society heavily deals with the disclosure of information concerning the public. In fact, the sector occupied by media depends on this ideal as the basis for its place and role in society.
The Truth And Democracy
In a democracy the truth, its prevalence, proliferation and valuation are essential. Systems of Justice, punishments and public policy are essentially based on the truth. The truth takes on not only a purely moral and ethical value but also a socio–political one. It becomes the foundation of a government for, of, and by the people. In fact, a cherished right in a democracy is the right to information. More than that is the duty of the state to keep its people updated and informed. After all it is merely an extension of the will of the people, whom the government exists to serve. It often becomes controversial when the truth and the right to information is set aside for matters of national security and public safety. However, these exceptions to the right to information have been overused and in some cases abused by governments, especially in peculiar instances.
State Secrets
In most cases the government deems it necessary that there would be no information released despite the right to it. These decisions are made in the context of state security and often bind not only certain kinds of information but even entire agencies and a multitude of government personnel or enlisted individuals. In a recent news, a soldier was ordered by his superiors to erase a video he took of a rampage. It is in these cases the right to information by the public is set aside for an undue cause. Now the matter is in court and the foremost right of the people to know is on trial. It is demandable from the government that certain information be made available to the public.
Greater Value Involved
The greater value at stake is the preservation of the ideals of democracy while still protecting national security and public safety. It is a difficult balance to strike between these two. Moreover, the more advanced a government is the more it will rely on the ability to control the flow of information for state purposes. However, these state purposes also include keeping the citizenry updated as to government policy and efforts. This is truer in cases regarding issues of great national importance. The court has to decide, which will prevail of the two, the right to information or the state rights to secrecy.
References:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7249613.html
Privatization of Water: An Unsound Policy
Contractor: Development Alternatives Inc. Alma D. Porciuncula, Chief of Party Unit 2401, Prestige Tower F. Ortigas Jr. Road Ortigas Center, Pasig City
In third world countries where the population has poor access to certain needs such as to potable water such is no longer just a resource rather it becomes a strategic asset or resource.
Resource or an Asset?
True that the definition of strategic assets pertain to resources that are essential to and are the cornerstone of the economy but for developing nations this pertains to resource essential for the survival of the people and of the well being of the nation. Such is potable water that it is in the context of the Philippines treated as a strategic resource or asset.
In a recent report it is said that the water supplying system that has been privatized will be taken under government control. This is in fact a main agenda of the new administration to correct the error of the policy that has access to, distribution of and maintenance of water systems be run by the care of the private sector.
Unburden the Government of Managing Various Utilities
Privatization was the move of the previous administration to unburden the government as to managing various utilities – water works included. This is a common trend in developing countries where the private sector is made steward of various public assets such as utilities. But is this something that should be continued in the Philippine context? This does mean that the private sector in the Philippines is not reliable or capacitated to manage these utilities. In this specific situation water is so vital and the people so dependent on it that it is paramount that government be the one to manage water systems in the Philippines.
The Government’s Role for the Welfare of the People
It must be noted that utilities are not just services, but they are also establishments that are impressed with a public character. This means that since the public’s welfare is tied into these establishments the government’s role in this is to directly manage, oversee and control utilities so as to protect public interest in utilities. This is comparable to the stewardship of the government of strategic assets that are essential to the economy. This is more than that since this involves a resource that is directly related to the well – being of the people.
Canada – ASEAN Partnership
By Ian Timberlake (AFP) – 2 days ago
There is nothing better than nations coming together for mutual good and prosperity. When each country reaches out in friendship and it is welcomed in friendship, when bonds are made despite differences and when states no longer are distinguish but are seen as a group all working for the good of the whole then this is true international comity.
Peaceful Resolution Despite Disputes
From the legal point of view it is the principle that one jurisdiction will extend certain courtesies to other nations (or other jurisdictions within the same nation), particularly by recognizing the validity and effect of their executive, legislative, and judicial acts. Beyond this it is the greater sense of community that binds in peace and peaceful resolution of disputes. It is the fulcrum of understanding wherein each accepts each other setting aside distinctions for the good of humanity.
We have learned that when countries retreat from each other and isolates themselves this sows fear, misunderstanding and hate. This breeds war and hostility. This clouds judgment and nations fail to see that we are of one race, one community and share more in common than we have as differences. It is always a notable step to building a world that is far better than the one we have not only for us but for our children and their children after them.
Effort for the Sake of Peace
In the news Canada, through Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon established greater ties with the nations in the ASEAN but, this is not a new effort. This is merely a renewal and rediscovery of the fact that nations – all nations are bound in common interest and concern. We share the same planet as a home and are plagued by the same ills and same adversities.
This sets the stage for greater things such as partnerships in the pursuit of noble goals that would bear great fruit not only for those in it (Canada and the ASEAN) but indirectly the whole family of nations as well. This also serves as a model and inspiration for other nations to set aside war, hostility, contempt and indifference so that they too may engage each other in friendship and prosperity.
Unity needed to Resolve Issues of Humanity
The ills of mankind are rooted in the very thing that which creates gaps and gulfs between nations. And to deal with them is as simple as to recognize and act on the fact that unity of all nations is essential in resolving the issues of humanity.
As Robert Kennedy said: “We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled nor enriched by hatred or revenge.”
Partnership breed friendship, friendship sows mutual respect and this in turn bears the fruit of peace in our time and all time.
Escalation of the Mexican Drug War
Mexico Mass Grave Pictures & Photos (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Narcotics like cocaine and heroin have plagued the United States and the rest of the American continent. Countries like Colombia and Mexico battle drug producing and trafficking organizations.
U.S. Joins the Fight in the Drug War
Along with them the U. S. is fighting the so-called Drug War. This war is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade. This initiative includes a set of drug policies of the United States that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs.
In the context of Mexico, there exist the Mérida Initiative which is a security cooperation approved on June 30, 2008 between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking and transnational crime. The Mérida Initiative will appropriate $1.4 billion in a three-year commitment to the Mexican government for military and law enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training to strengthen the national justice systems.
Smuggling a Big Part of the Drug Wars
In recent years, Mexico’s drug cartels have waged increasingly violent battles with one another as well as with the Mexican government. The Mexican cartels originated in response to a demand for smuggling both people and contraband into the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The cartels began operating as middlemen smugglers for more powerful groups. With smuggling networks in place, the 1970s saw the cartels branch out on their own and begin to smuggle the high demand drug, marijuana, into the United States.
In the 1980s the Colombian drug cartels rose to power, and they needed a way to bring cocaine into the American market. The Caribbean routes were used, but so were routes through Mexico. In the beginning, the Colombians would pay the Mexican groups as much as $1,000/kilo to smuggle cocaine into the United States. The Colombians would then pick up the drugs and resume distribution and sales efforts. This arrangement brought the Mexican cartels wealth, but little power or control of the drug trafficking market.
Mass Grave Found of Victims of the Drug War
Many questions remain unanswered regarding the future of the Mexican cartels, and their role in the Meso-American organized crime scene. What part will they continue to play in the politics of the Americas? Considering that in the news a mass grave of 51 victims of the drug war was recently discovered. Some analysts also stress that the United States should be doing more to curb arms trafficking from the United States into Mexico.
The gun laws in Border States have a loophole allowing individuals to purchase weapons without a background check. As a result, the weapons trade along the border is very lucrative. But to better engage the escalation of the Drug Wars new policies and measures must be employed so that responses to and means used be specifically responsive to the peculiarities of the present.
Breaking News- BREAKING NEWS: Suspects Arrested in Wayne County Murder - WSAZ June 3, 2012UPDATE 6/3/12 @ 2:30 p.m. WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) Wayne County Sheriffs Deputies say two men have been charged with the murder of a man in Radnor. Deputies say Dylan Alexander Jarrells and Willie Jay Copley have been arrested and charged ...
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- BREAKING NEWS: Suspects Arrested in Wayne County Murder - WSAZ June 3, 2012
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