Medical Marijuana Relieves Patient’s Pain, Obama Ends Worries
By Elizabeth Lopatto for Bloomberg.com
October 20th, 2009
Medical marijuana is one of the greatest political concerns the American government has to deal with. It is reported to help chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, nausea, glaucoma, and many others. However, it is also one of the most dangerous and dependent drugs out there, making it illegal to sell recreationally in every state in the U.S and illegal to sell for medical reasons in every state except for 13. The law to legalize it or not is up to the state, but the government has the right to indict people and physicians for giving it out. This article claims that the Obama Administration, unlike the administrations before him, is more lenient to medical marijuana smokers.
The Obama Administration’s leniency on medical marijuana has both positives and negatives. The positive side to it is that more people can use it to help them medically and can feel better much more quickly. The negative side is that drug traffickers will have an easier time selling their marijuana in these states, which was the main reason the previous administrations would crack down on the medical marijuana law. I do not support medical marijuana being used to an open extent. I think it has more negatives than positives. I would not have this outlook if people did not abuse marijuana, therefore putting a bad reputation on medical marijuana.
Read The Article Here At http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=agjC2C1A8LGU
Can We Escape Mexico’s Drug Wars?
By Oakland Ross for thestar.com
October 18, 2009
This is the second article on Canada and their problems in the drug trafficking wars. If you have paid attention to the news you might have heard that two Canadians, Gordon Kendall and Jeffrey Ivans were gunned down in Plaza Vallarta on September 27th by “unknown assailants”. These assailants were part of a gang cartel whose mission was to gun down Kendall and Ivans, who are thought to have been drug traffickers. The article then further describes how it is the American border control police fault that these kind of people are allowed in and out of Canada because they are corrupt and will accept large sums of money to literally ‘turn the other way’. As mentioned in the first Canadian article, drug trafficking can never really be a problem because marijuana is already legal there, however, it still has the possibility of becoming involved in the drug war because of the problems it has with cocaine.
I presume it is inevitable that Canada will become involved in the drug war no matter the precautions they take. They already have high up officials killed due to drug traffickers. I think they need to start cracking down on it more because it will soon become a very large problem for them and they will need to take every precaution they can.
Read the Article Here at http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/711950–can-we-escape-mexico-s-drug-wars
Mexico Drug Gangs in New Battle for Local Addicts
By Julian Cardona for Reuters
October 9th 2009
With a rising middle class, increasing sales on homegrown pot, and stricter border controls in the United States, drug cartels in Mexico are now looking for new ways to control the narcotic’s market, including seeking to increasing drug use in Mexico. This article describes some of the violence that has occurred for drug cartels to reign in the drug trade, including 17 killed at a rehabilitation center last month, adding up to the more than 14,000 people who have died in drug related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s crackdown in 2006.
This article shows that these drug cartels will stop at nothing just to get their drugs and profit, even if it means they have to ”eliminate rival small-time smugglers and dealers — mostly jobless addicts and high school drop-outs”. This only makes President Calderon’s job harder, as proposed by the article. Since there is so much more violence in this drug war, it complicates the Mexican government’s fight against it.
Read the Article Here at http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSN09438366
Homegrown Pot Threatens Mexican Cartels
By Steve Fainaru and William Booth for The Washington Post
October 7th, 2009
As the title concludes, Mexican Cartels are more worried than ever about homegrown mom-and-pop pot farms now that homegrown consists of almost half of all of American pot. And it is not just the amount that is being produced that they have to worry about, it is also the quality. Due to a high demand for high quality marijuana and the ability homegrown farmers have to specialize in pot, Mexican cartels that deal mass marketed low-quality pot now receive less and less customers. Homegrown American farmers also have more freedom now than ever to grow now that new rules are passing for the legalization of medical marijuana.
I do not support the legalization of marijuana. Let me just throw that out there. I think if it is legal, it would only be abused. It is evident that others do not agree with my point of view since the article states that 13 states have legalized some use of the drug. I know that drug trafficking will not end anytime in my lifetime, but I certainly know that if marijuana were legalized here in the states, the drug cartels would only become much more powerful, creating another reason why I do not support its legalization.
Read the Article Here at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/07/politics/washingtonpost/main5368594.shtml
Mexico’s Ferocious Zetas Cartel Reigns Through Fear
By John Burnett for National Public Radio
October 2nd, 2009
This article is about the Los Zetas, considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to be the most dangerous “drug-trafficking organization in Mexico.” It originally had thirty-one members, but most of them were killed or incarcerated. Now this heavily armed and very dangerous cartel consists of so many new members and copycats that petty gang thugs claim to be Zetas to frighten the locals and demand respect. Much work is being done to find the true Zetas and disband the drug cartel, but the Zetas are clever and vicious, and will destroy anyone who stands in their way.
It frightens me that one group can have so much power over so many people- rival drug groups, the innocent locals, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Although it has been mostly successful so far in capturing the original Zetas, they have produced so many copycats that it does not matter who the originals are anymore. It is even more devastating that we cannot even figure out who are part of the group or who is just pretending. The group, while they might be small, have gained a lot of power and fear and I am scared that we will not be able to dismember this powerful group.
Read the Article Here at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113388071
Mexico Captures Suspect In Killings
By Reuters for The New York Times
September 5th, 2009
Mexican troops have successfully captured the prime suspect in the killing of seventeen patients at a rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico. About a dozen men came into the rehabilitation center, lined up the patients, and killed them. Drug cartels have been known to target rehabilitation centers in the past, accusing them of hiding rival drug members. Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, the suspect, is also the leader of the powerful Juarez Cartel and in addition to the murder, was on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration most-wanted list for marijuana and cocaine smuggling into the United States.
This cat and mouse game is getting out of hand. Killing innocent rehabilitation patients because they were mad at the center? This is absolutely disgusting. I know that sitting down and talking about their problems with the center is way out of their comfort zone, but killing every innocent bystander is too brutal, even for the Juarez Cartel. I am glad we caught the leader of the group. That is one less dangerous person roaming around out there.
Read the Article Here at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/world/americas/06mexico.html
Afghanistan Now Has Drug Cartels
By Pamela Falk for CBS News
September 2nd, 2009
When someone thinks of drug cartels, they usually think of the drug cartels in Mexico. Well, drug cartels are no longer just a problem in Mexico. This article describes the ever-increasing drug trafficking business in Afghanistan. While poppy production is down this year, a summarized report on the overall drug control in Afghanistan released the “Afghan Opium Survey 2009″ in Kabul by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). This article concludes that Afghanistan officially now has its very own drug cartels and are moving up the “value chain” in the drug trafficking business, not merely taxing supply (which they have done for years), “but now working with criminal gangs and corrupt officials to produce, process, stock, and export opium”.
The drug trafficking business has always been big and it was only a matter of time when it would start spreading to developing and third world countries. These countries need something like a drug trade to try to build their economy back up. Since the Italian and Mexican mafia (the people who control the drugs) technically run their countries, the Afghanis probably thought that they could also control their own country with a large drug trade of their own.
Read the Article Here at http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/02/world/worldwatch/entry5281154.shtml
Chicago Feds Indict Mexican Drug Cartel Leaders
by Jeff Coen for Chicago Breaking News Center
August 20th 2009
Thirty-six people, including three cartel leaders, were charged in eight indictments in Chicago and additional members are expected to be indicted in New York, creating the “most significant narcotics conspiracy case of its kind ever in Chicago”. Among the charges against the two rival drug cartels are for bringing up four tons of cocaine up into the United States. One of the three cartel leaders includes Joaquin Guzman-Loera who was named #701 on Forbes.com list of billionaires earlier this year.
This just goes to show that the drug problems and corruption is not only in Mexico, but right in our own backyard. Four tons of cocaine were shipped across Chicago within a period of 20 years by these selected people. Four tons! While the drug cartel is a problem, what is a bigger problem is the American drug habit. If we were not so addicted to narcotics, there would be limited reason for these drug cartels to exist and create problems!
Read the Article Here at http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/feds-to-announce-major-drug-investigation-here.html
War Without Borders- Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens As Killers
By James C. McKinley Jr. for The New York Times
June 22nd, 2009
This article focuses on two American teenagers, Rosalio Reta and Gabriel Cardona, both of which are serving life terms in prison for pleading guilty to drug cartel-related murders for their respective cartel, the Los Zetas. (For more information on Los Zetas, refer to the Links sidebar). The two young men lived in Laredo, Texas, an impoverished town across the border from Mexico, and had every available access to drug trafficking growing up. These boys had done well in school until they fell in with the wrong crowd and started doing drugs and disobeying the law. They were recruited by the Los Zetas drug cartel, who enticed them with drugs, quick money, and girls. By the time Reta was 13 years old, he had made his first killing. After that, according to Reta, he just couldn’t stop. Both Reta and Cardona are in jail for two murders a piece.
The Mexican drug cartels really know what they are doing when they go across the border to recruit troubled American teens bribing them with quick money. After these teenagers made their killings, the cartel makes them do more and more until they are caught and the boys become useless to them. It is a dirty way to do business and a sad, pathetic way to live your life. The scariest part of it all is that I think that these boys do not even know why they are even doing the killings other than it makes them money.
Read the Article Here at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/us/23killers.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1255709155-I3bZVTAmqXPVtgWEQk%20/eA
How Mexico’s Drug War Washed Up On Canada’s West Coast
By Linda Diebel for thestar.com
May 30th, 2009
While Canada has not experienced the level of violence or narcotic abuse the rest of North America has, according to Linda Diebel, there are some pivotal places that have serious levels of gang violence due to the drug trade. Diebel states that while, “230 American cities have been infiltrated, the port city of Vancouver may be Canada’s first to feel the fallout from the crackdown on Mexico’s drug lords” (Diebel). She focuses on the patrolling of two cops, who specialize in going out at night and “gang-busting” suspects in the drug trade. The drug trade is a dangerous business and it is dragging other people and other countries into it.
Up to now, all the articles were about Mexico or the United States, except for one about Afghanistan. However, my topic is about all the North American drug cartels. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that Canada also has drug cartels, which, according to this article, are more prominent than ever. Canada has legalized marijuana, therefore does not have a drug war involving that. However, they have a large drug trade with an even more dangerous drug, cocaine. This war just keeps getting bigger and now even countries who supposedly were not involved now are.
Read the Article Here at http://www.thestar.com/article/642966
Drug Cartels to Mexican Police: ‘Join Us or Die’
By Associated Press for Fox News
May 18th, 2009
In the Mexican city, Ciudad Juarez, where drug cartels reign and criminal activity is high, there has been on ongoing slaughter between the police officers and the drug cartel gang members. This article describes how banners are draped around the city proclaiming that the cops either join the cartel’s war or die. This threat has fulfilled its promise. The police officers either join the gangs, becoming corrupt, but saving their lives, or fight against them, and usually die.
It is absolutely disgusting how Mexican drug cartels create so much fear in the Mexican citizens that even the police officers quit. Isn’t the new crackdown on drugs supposed to be lowering the crime rate instead of significantly raising it? If this crackdown will continue, it has a long way to go before it is going to see any results. It is going to take even longer if all the police officers keep getting killed or quit.
Read the Article Here at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356532,00.html
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