.: Drugs and Crime

Welcome to News2020.com where we hope to serve up the latest sceptical slant on the 'Drugs War' lunacy.

"It's nice to know we caught one coming through before it made it to its destination,"
Goldenseed.co.uk/arrest.html
Feburary 21st 2008

NEW CARROLLTON , Md. -- A minor car accident turns into a huge pot bust in New Carrollton.

A 72-year-old man apparently bumped another car in a convenience store parking lot. Nobody was hurt, but police found Rodell Alton Cole was driving on a suspended license.

Police ordered him to empty his car. He removed one bag and an officer removed another.

"When the officer removed the large bag, and wrapped his arms around it to lay it on the ground, not only could he smell it but he could feel what he believed to be dope of some kind," says New Carrollton Police Chief David Rice.

The bags contained 156.2 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $1,3790,504, according to police. A photo of the drugs indicated a slightly smaller quantity of drugs.

Police believe Cole, 72, of Manhattan was making a drug run from New York .

"It's nice to know we caught one coming through before it made it to its destination," Rice says.

Search and Seizure: Supreme Court Rules Passengers Can Challenge Police Stops
StoptheDrugWar
June 23rd 2007

In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court held Monday that passengers in a car stopped by police have the same right to challenge the constitutionality of that stop as the driver. The court held that when police stop a vehicle, the passengers are "seized" and have the right to challenge the legality of that seizure in court.

The ruling came in the case of California resident Bruce Edward Brendlin, who was arrested on parole violation and drug charges after the car in which he was riding was pulled over for what turned out to be bogus reasons by police. Once police had stopped the vehicle, they ordered Brendlin out of the car, searched him, the driver, and the vehicle, and found a syringe cap, a small amount of marijuana, and ingredients used to home cook methamphetamine.

While the driver of the vehicle did not challenge the constitutionality of the traffic stop, Brendlin did. He filed a motion to suppress the evidence against him, arguing that the traffic stop amounted to "an unlawful seizure of his person."

A California appeals court agreed, but the California Supreme Court overturned the appeals court decision. Instead, the California high court agreed with the state that even though police "had no adequate justification" to stop the vehicle in which Brendlin was riding, only the driver -- not any passengers -- had been "seized." Passengers in a vehicle stopped by police "would feel free to depart or otherwise to conduct his or her affairs as though the police were not present," the court reasoned.

But the US Supreme Court begged to differ. Any "reasonable passenger" would not feel free to simply leave the scene of a traffic stop, wrote Justice David Souter in the opinion in Brendlin v. California . "A traffic stop necessarily curtails the travel a passenger has chosen just as much as it halts the driver," Souder wrote. "Brendlin was seized from the moment [the driver's] car came to a halt on the side of the road, and it was error to deny his suppression motion on the ground that seizure occurred only at the formal arrest."

To find in favor of California's position that passengers are not "seized" during a traffic stop "would invite police officers to stop cars with passengers regardless of probable cause or reasonable suspicion of anything illegal," Souter wrote. "The fact that evidence uncovered as a result of an arbitrary traffic stop would still be admissible against any passengers would be a powerful incentive to run the kind of 'roving patrols' that would still violate the driver's Fourth Amendment right."

Snapshots of the Drug War
Stop The Drug War
May 13th 2007

Day after day, week after week, year after year, the war on drugs in the US is filling court dockets across the land. This week, we visit three different jurisdictions to get a snapshot of the role of the drug war down at the local courthouse.

In April, district court judges in Grayson County, Texas, about an hour north of Dallas, sentenced 95 people on felony charges . Of the 95 cases, the most serious charges in 16 were for simple methamphetamine possession, making that charge by far the most common of any before the court. Most people convicted of meth possession were given probation. One person was charged with enhanced meth possession and sentenced to 14 years, while two were charged with possession with intent to distribute. One got 20 years, the other got 10 years probation.

Seven people were sentenced for simple cocaine possession, with sentences ranging from probation to a month in jail to 10 years in prison. One person was sentenced for enhanced cocaine possession and got 6 years, while one other was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute and got 15 years. Four people were sentenced for possession of more than four ounces but less than five pounds of marijuana; two got probation, one got one year, and one got two years. One person was sentenced to two years in prison for possession of more than 50 pounds of marijuana.

Probation violators made up a sizeable contingent, with 13 being sentenced in April. Drug offenders accounted for nine of the violators, with meth, cocaine, and marijuana each accounting for three violators. Every drug-related probation violator was sent to prison, as were all other probation violators.

The rest of the cases where sentences were handed out were your typical array of assaults, aggravated and otherwise, burglaries, DWIs, frauds, robberies, and sexual assaults. In only two cases, aggravated sexual assaults on a child, were the sentences as long as the 20-year meth distribution sentence mentioned above.

All in all, persons charged under the drug laws accounted for 41 of the 95 cases adjudicated in Grayson County last month. That's more than 43% of the court's business being taken up with the drug war.

Meanwhile, down in the Pensacola, Florida, area, Tuesday was a typical day for felony arrests in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties . In Escambia County, there were five arrests for probation violation (original offense unspecified), four arrests for narcotics violations, three for aggravated assault, two for aggravated child abuse, and one for introducing contraband into a jail. All in all, 29 people were arrested on felony charges Tuesday, with only six directly linked to drug prohibition.

In neighboring Santa Rosa County, there were a total of nine felony arrests Tuesday. One was for drug possession, one for possession with intent to distribute. Three were for unspecified probation violations. Throw in an aggravated assault, a failure to appear, a DWI, and "throwing/shooting deadly missiles," and there's your daily docket.

If the drug war seems mellow in the Florida Panhandle, that's definitely not the case in Licking County, Ohio. Last Thursday, five people had bond hearings in Licking County Municipal Court in Newark . All five were on drug charges, and every case seems to be an example of over-charging. Three people were charged with drug trafficking offenses for buying drugs. As the local paper noted in the case of a woman charged with crack cocaine trafficking: " On April 11, she allegedly was observed by Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force buying less than one gram of crack cocaine, according to court reports."

One woman was charged with aggravated drug possession for having a methadone tablet without a prescription. But most bizarre was the charge facing a Newark woman. She was charged with "permitting drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony." As the local paper noted: "Between March 29 and 30, [she] allegedly allowed an associate to buy about seven grams of methamphetamine on two occasions. Both alleged purchases were made in the vicinity of a Newark City school, according to court reports."

In Licking County, Ohio, the drug war accounted for all the court's business one day last week. In Grayson County, Texas, the drug war accounted for nearly half of the court's business last month. In the Florida Panhandle, the proportion was much lower. But all across the country, drug prohibition is taking up the time of police, prosecutors, judges, and prison guards. But then again, that's their choice because policing and prosecuting drug offenses is a matter of deliberate policy.

Drugs plan pledged to help addicts break cycle of crime
Theherald.co.uk
April 16th 2007

Every police division in Glasgow will have access to an arrest-and-referral scheme for drug addicts and alcoholics if Labour is re-elected to run the city council, the party has pledged. The programme would offer immediate treatment to addicts and includes home visits and counselling in an effort to break the cycle between crime and addiction. It is reckoned that around 70% of all cases handled by Scottish courts are drug related, with addiction inextricably linked to house-breaking, shoplifting and prostitution. With the local government election race now gathering pace, council leader Steven Purcell has also promised an extra 20 residential rehabilitation beds in the city by early-2008 if he continues in the post after May 3. It follows pledges by Mr Purcell to target social needs in the city and sits well with his mantra of allowing every Glasgow citizen to "share in the city's success", Full Cycle....

'charges of tax evasion and money laundering against Ed Rosenthal dismissed'
The San Francisco Chronicle
March 15th 2007

We all knew Ed Rosenthal was being vindictively prosecuted, but it's nice to a hear a federal judge say it. From The San Francisco Chronicle :
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco dismissed charges of tax evasion and money laundering against Ed Rosenthal, 62, an author and activist who has been dubbed the "Guru of Ganja."
…

The judge said he based his decision in part on the comments by prosecutor George Bevan during a hearing on the case. Bevan, according to transcripts, explained the decision to re-file charges, saying, "The purpose is this: Mr. Rosenthal, after the verdict, took to the microphone and said, 'I didn't get a fair trial.' ... So I'm saying, this time around, he wants the financial side reflected, fine, let's air this thing out. Let's have the whole conduct before the jury: Tax, money laundering, marijuana."

It's delightful to see the smug George Bevan held to account for his maliciousness, but frankly this only scratches the surface. Many have surmised that the targeting of Ed Rosenthal has always had everything to do with his notoriety as a cannabis cultivation expert. Considering what Rosenthal has been put through over the past several years, today's vindictive prosecution finding is long overdue.
He was first arrested after a federal raid in February 2002 at a West Oakland warehouse where Rosenthal was growing marijuana for what he said was medical use, with the support of Alameda County and Oakland officials. At trial in 2003, Breyer refused to let jurors learn about the intended medical use of the plants and excluded evidence about Proposition 215, California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative.

Rosenthal was convicted of violating federal drug laws, but seven of the 12 jurors said afterward that their verdict would have been different if they had been allowed to consider evidence about the medical use of the marijuana and Rosenthal's status as an agent in the Oakland program.

Breyer let Rosenthal off with a one-day sentence, humiliating federal prosecutors and sealing Ed's fate as a perpetual target.

The details of this ongoing legal saga are too numerous to list here, but the great irony of it all is worth fleshing out: after lying to the jury in order to convict him and being publicly humiliated when those same jurors turned against them, federal prosecutors responded to Rosenthal's appeal by piling on more charges in an attempt to punish him for challenging them. Today's vindictive prosecution finding not only exposes their malfeasance but also publicly reveals this tasty fact:
Breyer did not throw out the drug charges, but noted that "the government agreed at oral argument" that it will not seek more than the one-day sentence on those counts.

That's right, American taxpayers. Behold the glorious retribution of the principled and incorruptible federal prosecutors who've exhausted untold sums and incalculable man hours to protect you from your medicine. Amidst Iraq, Katrina, Medicare, etc. the federal government was trying to save you from Ed Rosenthal by putting him in jail for one goddamn day. And they're still working on it, knowing as they have all along, that this is the best they can hope for.

There can be no redemption for the spiteful, treacherous cretins who label medical providers as drug dealers and seek to deceive Californian jurors about California's laws in order to imprison Californians. There can be no redemption for them, for they are the real criminals and the story of their shameful vendetta becomes more obscene with each attempt to rewrite it.

Still, the question remains: when is it not vindictive prosecution to launch a political war on medical providers as they carry out the will of the people?

Police on danger drug lab alert
Yorkshiretoday.co.uk
March 13th 2007

Police have recovered cannabis worth £2.6m from illegal factories in the area around Sheffield city centre in the past year – and there is now concern the gangs cultivating the plants could switch to producing a highly dangerous but more profitable drug instead.
The scale of cannabis prod-uction in this country is illustrated by the results of police raids in an area that covers only communities dir-ectly around the city centre.
Investigators accept there will be other factories they have not yet discovered, and even more in the wider area of the city suburbs and around South Yorkshire.
With a catalogue of successful operations against cannabis factories in Sheffield, senior officers have been able to establish that many are operated by criminal gangs from outside this area. Some Vietnamese criminals are orchestrating the production, using immigrants brought in specifically for the task.
The cannabis plants are grown under artificial light with equipment normally used for legitimate agricultural production.Evidence has emerged elsewhere in the country that criminal gangs operating similar factories have been trying to switch them over to making meth amphetamine, a manufactured drug which is produced using readily available chemicals, Full Alert....

Abuse of legal drugs worse than heroin and ice
Theage.com.au
March 12th 2007

Overdosing on prescription or over-the-counter drugs is twice as common as overdosing on illicit drugs, new Melbourne ambulance figures show. With heroin abuse declining dramatically after a glut at the turn of the century, the city's paramedics have attended a far greater proportion of legal-drug overdoses — 6150 in the 12 months to February last year.
Over the same period, data from the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre show there were 3011 ambulance calls for illicit drug overdoses, comprising 1369 for heroin and 1642 for all others, including ice and ecstasy.
"The recent media hysteria around methamphetamines and ice is unfortunate in one way because it detracts from the true scope of the problem," Turning Point research fellow Stefan Cvetkovski said. "Illicit drugs obviously attract more attention, but we need to get some perspective on other kinds of overdose and substance dependence."
Sedatives such as Valium, Mogadon and Rohypnol were the most abused category of legal drugs, followed by analgesics such as Nurofen and Panadeine Forte, Full Abuse....

'heroin, cannabis and amphetamines'
Lee Peace
Dearnetoday.co.uk

Police have raided a series of suspected drugs dens across the Dearne Valley during a robust operation targeting known criminals.
More than £6,000 worth of illegal drugs were seized during raids across houses in the Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster areas.
The three-day operation started last Wednesday morning when officers executed warrants at six properties in Thurnscoe and elsewhere in the Barnsley area.
They found nearly £3,000 worth of heroin, cannabis and amphetamines while three people were arrested and others were given cautions.
On Thursday more than £2,500 worth of cannabis and what was suspected to be heroin were recovered during several raids in Swinton, West Melton and Wath. Six people were arrested and questioned.
On the final day police raided five suspected drugs dens in Mexborough where they recovered £980 worth of heroin, cannabis, diazepam and methadone. Six people were arrested.
The operation, which pulled in resources from all three police districts, also targeted other crimes.
A further 29 people were arrested for a range of crimes from burglary and assault to non payment of fines and failing to attend court, Full Haul....

California's 1906 Pharmacy and Poison Act
CA 1906 Pharmacy and Poison Act

"State's war on drugs a 100-year-old bust
Rate of addiction has doubled since crackdown on use"

Dale Gieringer March 9th 2007
San Francisco Chronicle

Tuesday marks the centennial of a fateful but forgotten watershed in
state history: the start of California's war on drugs.

On March 6, 1907, Gov. James Gillett signed amendments to the Pharmacy
and Poison Act making it a crime to sell opiates or cocaine in the state
without a prescription. The act made California a national leader in the
war on drugs seven years before Congress enacted national drug
prohibition with the Harrison Act.

Many Americans don't know there was a time when people could freely buy
any drug they wanted, including opium, cocaine, cannabis and other
so-called narcotics. For most of the nation's history, there was no such
thing as an illegal drug. That began to change after the turn of the
20th century, when an alliance of Progressive Era bureaucrats and moral
crusaders began to push for prohibition of narcotics and alcohol.

California's law was engineered by the state Board of Pharmacy, a
national pioneer in drug enforcement whose exploits have been largely
lost to history. The board was established in 1891 to regulate
pharmacies and the sale of poisons. The 1891 law required that narcotics
carry warning labels and that their sales be recorded in a register, but
it did not restrict purchases.

However, a rising national tide for pure food and drug legislation
prompted the board to propose stronger measures to the Legislature. In
1907, the law was quietly amended without any press coverage or public
debate -- or any discussion of possible adverse effects. As soon as the
law took effect, the board began a high-profile enforcement campaign,
dispatching its agents from city to city, investigating and busting
offending pharmacists, raiding opium dens, and publicizing their arrests
in the newspapers.

The campaign proved to be the opening battle in a 100-year war that
still rages with no signs of ultimate victory.

California's anti-drug efforts go even further back. In 1875, San
Francisco passed the nation's first anti-drug law, the Opium Den
Ordinance, aimed specifically at Chinese opium smoking. Passed at the
height of anti-Chinese hysteria, the law was the legacy of the city's
shortest serving mayor, Dr. George Hewston, who was in office for a
month after the sudden death of Mayor James Otis.

Although the dens had been around for years, Hewston decried the
increase in dens "frequented by white males and females of various
ages," and called on the supervisors to suppress practices "which are
against good morals and contrary to public order." The ordinance did not
prohibit sale or private use of opium, but banned dens for public
smoking. Conscious that the city remained a lucrative center of the
opium trade, the supervisors went on to impose a license fee on opium
dealers, which the Chinese adeptly evaded.

For years, the dens continued to thrive underground, a lucrative
industry of vice and a source of bribery and corruption, like
prostitution and gambling. The Chinese were typically left alone, but
dens that catered to whites were considered fair game for law
enforcement.

Other cities began to ban the dens, and in 1881 the Legislature enacted
a statewide ban. Nonetheless, the dens persisted, as did anti-Chinese
sentiment, and stricter measures were proposed. Among them was an
opium-prohibition bill by state Sen. George Perry of San Francisco, that
managed to pass the 1885 Legislature but was vetoed.

The Perry bill would have banned sale of the drug except with a doctor's
prescription. Opponents charged it was secretly aimed at extracting a
bribe from the opium dealers to stop it -- charges that gained momentum
when the bill was obligingly vetoed by Gov. George Stoneman, a crony of
Perry's. The next session, another opium-prohibition bill was withdrawn
amid renewed charges of bribery. The Legislature finally washed its
hands of the matter by passing a resolution calling on Congress to act,
but there was little interest in Washington.

San Francisco enacted a pioneering anti-narcotics law of its own in
1889. The move came in response to a petition from the San Francisco
Medical Society, which, lamenting the ruination of the city's young men
and women by Chinese opium, called for sales to be restricted to
pharmacies and used for medical purposes only.

Meanwhile, the superintendent of the local House of Corrections reported
a disturbing influx of inmates who were addicted to the newly
popularized hypodermic use of morphine and cocaine. The supervisors
responded with one of the nation's first comprehensive anti-narcotics
laws, the Morphine/Cocaine Ordinance.

The ordinance, in effect a prototype of the 1907 law, banned the sale of
opium, morphine and cocaine except by pharmacies on a doctor's
prescription. Ironically for a city destined to become the mecca of the
1960s drug culture, the ordinance specifically forbade recreational use,
disallowing prescriptions for the purpose of satisfying "curiosity or to
experience any of the sensations produced thereby."

The ordinance proved unsuccessful. It faced significant opposition from
the city's druggists, who objected to the hardship of requiring
suffering patients to get a doctor's prescription. An initial flurry of
arrests drove the drug fiends to Oakland, which in turn passed its own
law.

However, enforcement efforts soon lagged, as police were reluctant to
hassle otherwise peaceable pharmacists. By 1893, The Chronicle declared
the ordinance a "dead letter."

California's war on drugs began in earnest with the 1907 amendments. The
Board of Pharmacy launched an aggressive campaign and pioneered the
modern tactics of drug enforcement. The board hired undercover agents
who posed as suffering patients, wheedling drugs from unsuspecting
pharmacists, then arresting them.

The board swept down on the Chinatown dens, busting down doors and
arresting hundreds. It strategically expanded its powers through new
legislation. In a crucial move, possession was outlawed in 1909. This
set the stage for the criminalization of users, today the largest single
class of criminals in California.

The board also moved to ban possession of opium pipes. It then garnered
headlines by staging gigantic public bonfires of confiscated
paraphernalia and drugs in the heart of Chinatown.

The raids broke the back of the opium-smoking culture, but the addicts
moved on to morphine and heroin. The board proceeded to launch a
pre-emptive attack on "Indian hemp" or cannabis in 1913.

At the time, cannabis was virtually unheard of in California.
Nonetheless, the board warned of an influx of cannabis-using "Hindoos"
(actually Sikhs) from India, and prevailed on the Legislature to ban the
drug lest the habit spread to whites. Ironically, only after being
outlawed did marijuana become popular, eventually being used by millions
of Californians.

To a public unaccustomed to drug enforcement, the board's conduct
initially stirred consternation. The public "has been disgusted with the
sending of spies and stool-pigeons to gather evidence," the Santa Cruz
News said in an editorial. Board inspectors were accused of brutal
beatings and violence of a kind unknown in pre-prohibition days.

Inevitably, corruption also ensued. The board's chief inspector,
Frederick Sutherland, was fired amid allegations of bribery after he
married a drug-dealing widow.

In subsequent years, attitudes hardened. As black market dealers moved
in, drugs were increasingly viewed as a criminal problem. At first,
penalties were relatively mild: Sale was classified as only a
misdemeanor. Later, possession became punishable by up to six years in
prison. Originally, the board had envisioned that drug fiends would be
treated in asylums rather than sent to jail. However, funding for
asylums was repeatedly vetoed, sending addicts to prison.

As the screws tightened, the problem got worse. Federal and state laws
forced prices out of sight, pushing addicts into crime. By 1919, the Los
Angeles Times reported a "saturnalia of violent crime" caused by drug
fiends desperate to get narcotics. Stories of drug crime and violence,
rarely seen before prohibition, became a staple item in the press.

In the end, the drug laws became a giant crime-creation program.

Before 1907, the state's drug crime involved a few hundred opium den
misdemeanors. Today, the state records 400,000 drug arrests per year,
250,000 of them felonies. Drug felons -- nonexistent in 1906 -- now
account for 36,000 prisoners, 20 percent of the state's prison
population. Drug gangs plague our cities, thousands of innocent people
are victimized by prohibition-related theft and violence, and the rough
stuff has escalated into outright war in Afghanistan, Colombia and
Mexico.

Today's addiction rate is more than twice what existed during the free
market a century ago -- only about one-half percent.

After 100 years, it is hard to escape the conclusion that drug
prohibition has failed. In recent years, Californians have begun to show
second thoughts, approving initiatives to re-legalize medical cannabis
and to send drug users for treatment rather than to prison. As the state
with the longest historical experience with drug laws, it is fitting
that California should be exploring new directions out of its 100-year
war on drugs.

Dale Gieringer is California director of NORML. Contact us at
insight@sfchronicle.com.

Six dogs were used in checking lockers
Pantagraph.com
March 8th 2007

Bloomington: A small amount of marijuana was found in a locker Wednesday during a routine check at Bloomington High School.
The school was on temporary lockdown Wednesday morning as part of a routine drug check in cooperation with Bloomington Police Department. Students remain in their classrooms when the locker search is taking place.
Six dogs were used in checking lockers, said Bloomington Principal Cindy Helmers. “They did a wonderful job,” she said of the police and dogs.
Bloomington police spokesman Duane Moss confirmed the school requested assistance of the canine unit for a sweep through the school.
No arrests were made as a result of the sweep. The student in possession of the marijuana was issued a city ordinance violence ticket which usually requires paying a fine, he said, Full Stink....

Homeowners have a right to know..
lfpress.ca
March 8th 2007

Hamilton: Homeowners have a right to know whether their house has ever been used as a marijuana grow op and the province is looking at ways to make that happen, Attorney General Michael Bryant said yesterday.
Ontario has focused on shutting down active grow operations, he said, but is now looking at how to single out homes or apartments that have a history as grow ops. The province is looking at ways to impose renovation standards on homes used as grow ops, as well as possibly creating a registry so homeowners have all the information before they buy, Bryant said before attending a cabinet meeting in Hamilton, Full Dissclosure....

.: Crime & Violence:

Stop the Drug War (DRCNet) - Crime & Violence

Latin America: Mexico Drug War Update

by Bernd Debusmann, Jr.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations make billions each year trafficking illegal drugs into the United States, profiting enormously from the prohibitionist drug policies of the US government. Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and called the armed forces into the fight against the so-called cartels, prohibition-related violence has killed over 17,000 people, with a death toll of nearly 8,000 in 2009 and over 1,000 so far in 2010. The increasing militarization of the drug war and the arrest of several high-profile drug traffickers have failed to stem the flow of drugs -- or the violence -- whatsoever. The Merida initiative, which provides $1.4 billion over three years for the US to assist the Mexican government with training, equipment and intelligence, has so far failed to make a difference. Here are a few of the latest developments in Mexico's drug war:

Monday, February 22

A high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel was captured by federal police in his hometown of Santa Ana, Sonora. Jose Vasquez Villagrana, 40, is a former member of the US Army, in which he served for a year in 1990 before deserting to Mexico once he had obtained US citizenship. He is accused of overseeing the importation of Colombian cocaine to Mexico via Panama and other Central American countries. Once in Mexico, the cocaine was stored at his ranch before being smuggled into the United States.

Tuesday, February 23

Two people were killed in firefights between police and suspected drug traffickers in the state of Coahuila. Seven people were reported wounded in the fighting, which took place in the cities of Piedras Negras, La Laguna and Torreon. The violence began when police attempted to pull over a pickup truck in Piedras Negras, only to be fired at by automatic weapons. One of the gunmen was killed, while a second escaped. Four others were wounded in the shooting. Upon searching the truck, police found several weapons, including AK-47's, AR-15's, fragmentation grenades and a .50 caliber "Barrett" sniper rifle. In another incident, police shot dead a suspected drug-trafficker and wounded two others in La Laguna.

The mayor of the town of Mezquital, Durango was gunned down as he dined in a restaurant in the state capital of Durango. In Navolato, Sinaloa, a municipal police official was shot dead. Several minutes after his killing, gunmen returned to open fire on police and army personnel who had arrived at the scene to gather evidence. None were killed.

Additionally, in the coastal town of Bella Vista, two executed bodies were found lying on the beach. Two men were murdered in Culiacan, two others in Mazatlan, and another body was found in Navolato. During the same time period, eight people were killed in violence across the city. In one incident, gunmen forced the patrons of a business in the La Presa neighborhood to lay down before picking out their three targets, who were then shot. Also in Tijuana, police discovered a shipment of 5,000 unidentified "psychotropic pills" which had arrived on a flight from Guadalajara.

Wednesday, February 24

In Oaxaca, gunmen attacked a rural town, leaving 13 people dead. The attack, which took place in the small town of San Vicente Camalote, was carried out by an unknown number of masked men traveling in several vehicles. The attack began when 9 policemen were killed after the gunmen attacked their checkpoint. The gunmen then stormed a ranch, killing its owner and three of his sons. Although the exact motive is unclear, authorities believe the killings were related to the drug trade.

In other news, the US consulate in Monterrey advised American citizens to avoid travel to the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Nuevo Leon, and the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. Authorities in Tamaulipas fought gun battles against suspected cartel members in several cities, leaving at least 19 dead, including one police officer. Additionally, in the state of Guerrero, authorities discovered two severed arms and a threatening note inside a cooler, having being led to it by an anonymous tip.

In Sinaloa, a Mexican Air Force helicopter came under fire while searching for marijuana and poppy fields in a remote area. A 48-year pilot was wounded by the gunfire, and had to be taken to a hospital in the town of Los Mochis. No further details on the incident are available.

In the city of Chihuahua, gunmen shot a police official at the entrance to a primary school, in front of dozens of children who were present. The officer was dropping off his son at the school.

In Mexico City, two bodies were found in the trunk of an SUV parked in the upscale neighborhood of Bosques de las Lomas. One of the dead was male and one female. Their identities are unclear. Police also removed a mysterious package from the vehicle to be further inspected.

Total Body Count for the Week: 137

Total Body Count for the Year: 1,401

Total Body Count for 2009: 7,724

Total Body Count since Calderon took office: 17,606

Read the last Mexico Drug War Update here.

read full post

Representatives of the US and Mexican governments meeting at the US-Mexico Bi-national Drug Demand Reduction Policy Meeting in Washington, DC, this week took pains to make clear that neither government is prepared to consider drug legalization. Although legalization wasn't on the meeting's agenda, both Gil Kerlikowske, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office), and Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos felt impelled to denounce it.

status quo at all costs (follow top link above for video) "Legalization isn't a subject under discussion under the Obama administration under any circumstances," said Kerlikowske. Such proposals do not hold up "under the thinnest veil of scrutiny," he said. "The reasons for this are multiple: There is no evidence that legalization would reduce the violence or benefit the economy."

"In Mexico," said Villalobos, "and I want to emphasize this in a firm manner, there is a clear consensus to maintain the criminalization of the cultivation, transportation, possession, commerce, or use of substances identified as dangerous in the international conventions. We are convinced that the legalization of the use of drugs is not only dangerous and distant, but unviable in practical terms. Drugs aren't dangerous because they're illegal, they're illegal because they're dangerous," he added, stealing a hoary trope that is a favorite of UN Office on Drugs and Crime head Antonio Maria Costa.

But the consensus of which Villalobos spoke is badly tattered. The rejection of drug legalization comes amidst a rising clamor for a rethink of prohibitionist drug policies. The calls for change are growing increasingly loud south of the border, where Mexican President Felipe Calderon's militarization of the drug war has led to growing public dismay with its bloody death toll, accusations of human rights abuses by the military, and the campaign's inability to have an noticeable impact on the so-called drug cartels.

On Monday, Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, once again called for debating legalization. "We need to end the war," he said. "It's time to debate legalizing drugs," he said, adding, "Then maybe we can separate violence from what is a health problem."

Similarly, at a conference in Mexico City this week, academics, attorneys, and activists joined former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria in calling for drug legalization. (See related story here.)

The officials also took some flak from north of the border. "The only solution to the current crisis is to tax and regulate marijuana," said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. "Once again, Mexican and US officials are ignoring the fact that the cartels get 70% of their profits from marijuana. It's time to face the reality that the US's marijuana prohibition is fueling a bloodbath in Mexico and the United States."

Congress has approved a three-year $1.4 billion anti-drug aid package for Mexico and Central America, and this year the Obama administration is seeking an additional $310 million in anti-drug aid for Mexico.

"It is illogical, at best, to continue throwing money at this failed policy," Houston said. "The government will never eliminate the demand for marijuana, but it can put an end to the monopoly drug cartels currently hold on America's largest cash crop. Lifting marijuana prohibition would take away the cartels' largest source of income and the main reason for the horrifically brutal violence perpetrated by rival drug groups."

But if Washington and Mexico City just whistle loudly enough as they walk past the graveyard, perhaps they can continue to ignore the rising clamor just a while longer.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                 

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

U.S.-Mexico Drug Summit Fails to Acknowledge Obvious Solution to Violent Drug Cartels

Ending Marijuana Prohibition Would Deal Crucial Blow to Mexican Drug Cartels, Drastically Reduce Border Violence

CONTACT: Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations ????? 202-420-1031

WASHINGTON, DC ? Today, high-ranking officials from the United States and Mexico concluded a three-day conference meant to outline ways the two nations could reduce the illicit drug trade-associated violence that continues to plague the U.S.-Mexican border. Unfortunately, officials concluded their talks without making any reference to the most sensible and guaranteed strategy for reducing that violence: removing marijuana from the criminal market, and depriving drug cartels of their main source of income and strife.

         ?The only solution to the current crisis is to tax and regulate marijuana,? said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. ?Once again, Mexican and U.S. officials are ignoring the fact that the cartels get 70 percent of their profits from marijuana. It?s time to face the reality that the U.S.?s marijuana prohibition is fueling a bloodbath in Mexico and the United States.? 

         The Obama administration has said it will provide the Mexican government with a $1.4 billion aid package to combat the Mexican drug cartels, in addition to seeking $310 million in its 2011 budget for drug enforcement aid to Mexico. 

         ?It is illogical, at best, to continue throwing money at this failed policy,? Houston said. ?The government will never eliminate the demand for marijuana, but it can put an end to the monopoly drug cartels currently hold on America?s largest cash crop. Lifting marijuana prohibition would take away the cartels? largest source of income and the main reason for the horrifically brutal violence perpetrated by rival drug groups.?  

         Last year, the Mexican border city Juarez recorded 2,670 homicides. Among the growing numbers of voices calling for an end to marijuana prohibition in order to stem the violence are former Mexican presidents Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo, as well as the former leaders of Brazil and Colombia.

         With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.

####

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The Winds of Change: Drug Policy in the World opened yesterday in Colonia Napoles, a ritzy area of Mexico City. I would have blogged about it yesterday, but I was in the conference all day long, and in the evening, I attended a related event where they plied us with wine, so I never got around to it.

Former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda got it all started in fine provocative form. He suggested during the opening session that Mexico needs to go back to the "good old days" of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), at least when it comes to dealing with drug trafficking organizations.

The PRI, of course, ruled Mexico in a virtual one-party state for 70 years before being defeated by Vicente Fox and the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in the 2000 elections. It was widely (and correctly) seen as not fighting the drug trade so much as managing it. Fox, under whom Castaneda served, started to move against the cartels, and his successor, Calderon, accelerated the offensive by bringing in the military in a big way. The result has been a bloody disaster, with Mexico being wracked by an ever mounting death toll as the army and federal police wage war on the so-called cartels, the cartels wage war on the police and the army, and when they're not busy killing cops and soldiers, turn their guns on each other. And the drugs keep flowing north and the guns and cash keep flowing south.

Perhaps it is time to return to a quiet arrangement with the cartels, Castaneda suggested. "How do we construct a modus vivendi?" he asked. "The Americans have a modus vivendi in Afghanistan," he noted pointedly. "They don't care if Afghanistan exports heroin to the rest of the world; they are at war with Al Qaeda."

Castenada's comments on Afghanistan rang especially true this week, as American soldiers push through poppy fields in their offensive on Marja. The US has made an explicit decision to arrive at a modus vivendi with poppy farmers, although it still fights the trade by interdiction and going after traffickers?or at least those linked to the Taliban. President Karzai's buddies, not so much.

Casteneda also came up with another provocative example, especially for Mexican leftists in the audience. "We had a modus vivendi with the Zapatistas in Chiapas," he noted. "We also pretended they were real guerrillas with their wooden rifles. We created a liberated zone, and the army respected it, and it's still there. But it is a simulation?the army could eliminate it in 90 seconds."

And in yet another provocative comment on the theme, Casteneda suggested that somebody may already have arrived at a modus vivendi with the Sinaloa Cartel?a suggestion that is getting big play in Mexican newspapers these days. "Why is it that of the 70,000 drug war prisoners in Mexico, only 800 are Chapo Guzman's men?" he asked. "Many people think the government has made a deal with the Sinaloa cartel. I don't know if it's true."

This isn't the first time Castaneda has made provocative statements in recent months. At the Drug Policy Alliance conference in Albuquerque in November, he said bluntly that the Mexican military is committing extrajudicial executions of drug gang members and blithely repeated the charge when called on it.

All of the Mexicans I've been talking to think Castaneda has political ambitions. Perhaps he's angling for a cabinet appointment in the next presidency or perhaps he's getting ready to run for political office himself. In any case, he certainly has no problem stirring things up when it comes to making allegations about what's going on beneath the surface in Mexico's drug war.

Stay tuned for some more blog posts about the conference, which ended just a couple of hours ago. Now that it's done, I have some time to write about it.

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I flew into Mexico City last night to attend the Winds of Change: Drug Policy in the World conference on Monday and Tuesday. I'll be blogging about and reporting on that next week.

But today, I want to provide you with one example of how much the narco-violence and the Mexican government's response to it dominates the political discourse in Mexico these days. In today's print edition of the well-respected, slightly left-leaning Mexico City newspaper La Jornada, we have the following headlines on the front page and adjoining main news section:

The front page is mainly a come-on for the rest of the paper. The big headline is "In Cancun, [Bolivian President] Evo [Morales] Announces a New OAS Without Canada or the United States." Then there is a half-page photo of the secretary of defense and two generals with a bikini-clad woman facing them, her upturned bottom getting plenty of space. The generals are announcing a pay raise for the troops. I have no idea what the bikini-clad woman was doing there. Then there are some teasers...

Page 2--letters to the editor

Page 3--The politics page. A story about Cuban-Mexican relations.

Page 4--"The PAN [ruling party] 'Unauthorizes' Criticisms by [PAN Sen. Manuel] Clouthier [of Sinaloa]. Clouthier had accused the federal government of coddling "a state government that colludes with delinquency [the narcos]." Clouthier is talking about the state government of his own state, home of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Page 5--"Secretary of Defense: It is Inconvenient and Undesirable to Make Permanent the Military Fight Against the Narco." On the same page, a cartoon with the defense secretary saying, "We need a legal framework for the drug war," and President Calderon replying, "Yes, a law that prohibits persecuting El Chapo [Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel], for example."

Page 6--"The Defense Department Reinforces Security at its Headquarters Fearing Possible Attacks From the Hampa (Narcos). The subhead reads: "The Navy is Also Taking Measures After the Death of [cartel head] Arturo Beltran Leyva," who was gunned down by Naval Marines a few weeks ago." Also on page 6: "Complaints Against the Army Increase 400%, Says the National Commission on Human Rights.'

Page 7--"It's Not the Army's Role to Fight the Narcos, Say Senators of the PRD, PRI, and PT." Those, of course, are the opposition parties. Also on page 7: "Initiatives Over Military Participation" about a legal framework for the military's role in the drug war. Also on page 7: "Colin Powell Singles Out the Work of Intelligence Against the Cartels" at a speech in Monterrey. The subhead reads: "He Recognizes the Role of the US in the Growth of Violence Here."

Page 8--"The Federal Government Will Inaugurate an Office in Ciudad Juarez to Make Social Programs More Responsive." Also on page 8: "Yesterday's Wave of Violence Leaves 31 Executed, 11 of the Victims in Chihuahua."

It is only by page 9 that La Jornada gets around to rest of the national news. The violence in Mexico may get the occasional 30-second treatment on the US networks and the occasional story in the US press, but down here it is a very big deal, all day and every day.

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by Bernd Debusmann, Jr.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations make billions each year trafficking illegal drugs into the United States, profiting enormously from the prohibitionist drug policies of the US government. Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and called the armed forces into the fight against the so-called cartels, prohibition-related violence has killed over 16,000 people, with a death toll of nearly 8,000 in 2009 and over 1,000 so far in 2010. The increasing militarization of the drug war and the arrest of several high-profile drug traffickers have failed to stem the flow of drugs -- or the violence -- whatsoever. The Merida initiative, which provides $1.4 billion over three years for the US to assist the Mexican government with training, equipment and intelligence, has so far failed to make a difference. Here are a few of the latest developments in Mexico's drug war:

Sunday, February 14

In Ciudad Juárez, hundreds of people participated in a protest against the government. The demonstration, organized by the National Front Against Repression, was protesting against both the drug-related violence in the city and the presence of the army, which is widely seen by locals as exacerbating the violence. (See related story here.)

Monday, February 15

In Guerrero, a a Mexican paratrooper assigned to the elite Presidential Guard in Mexico City was kidnapped and killed while on vacation. The body of the soldier -- Hermelindo Delgado Soto -- was found floating in the Balsas River. He had been kidnapped the previous Friday. It is unclear whether his death was related to his posting serving with the Presidential Guard.

Tuesday, February 16

In Sinaloa five decapitated heads were found next to a primary school in the town of Palmilla. Last week, three heads were found in the same location. Two of the bodies (to which the heads belonged) were found to have the letter Z carved into their back. This suggests that the killing had some relation to the Zetas organization, but it is unclear whether the men were killed by los Zetas or were members.

Wednesday, February 17

Five municipal police officials were among 30 people who were killed in drug-related violence across Mexico. Three of the police officials were murdered after being kidnapped by a group of heavily armed men in Sinaloa. The two other police officials were killed after gunmen attacked the home of a high-ranking police official where the two men stood guard. Another 25 people were killed in various parts of Mexico, seven of them in Ciudad Juárez. In another notable incident, three teenagers kidnapped in Sinaloa were found burned in a car.

In Chiapas 11 individuals were arrested in possession of weapons and drugs. The men were arrested after federal agents raided several locations across the state. They seized 351 grams of cocaine and 408 grams of marijuana, as well as several rifles and pistols, an SUV, $60,000 US dollars and 27,910 pesos (about $2,149). The rather small sums of money and drugs indicate that those captured were low-level operatives for drug-trafficking organizations.

President Calderon visited Ciudad Juárez for the second time in two weeks. He announced a change in strategy, although he said the army troops would remain. He also promised (without saying when) that specialists in solving kidnapping and extortion cases would be brought to the city, and encouraged citizens to pass information to authorities. Additionally, he announced that all cars in the city must have license plates (although technically this was already the law) and tinted windows would no longer be permitted. Several news agencies reported that there were some protests against his presence in the city.

Total Body Count for the Week: 111

Total Body Count for the Year: 1,264

Total Body Count for 2009: 7,724

Total Body Count since Calderon took office: 17,469

Read the last Mexico Drug War Update here.

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As the death toll tops 17,000 since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the so-called drug cartels in December 2006, and with no end to the killing in sight, demonstrators took to the streets of bloody Ciudad Juárez Sunday to denounce the killing and the government's approach. The next day, Calderon's drug policies came under attack from an entirely different direction: the Catholic Church in Mexico.

Council of Bishops event releasing report In Juárez, where more than 2,600 people were killed in prohibition-related violence last year and 15 teenagers were gunned down last week in an incident that shocked the nation, more than a thousand people took to the streets Sunday in a "March of Anger" against the drug violence, with some leaders saying the presence of 6,000 federal troops is only making things worse.

"The army's presence is anti-constitutional and violates citizens' rights. That's why we're asking them to withdraw," National Front Against Repression leader Javier Contreras told the crowd.

Human rights and civil society groups in Juárez and, more broadly, across Mexico, have charged that Mexican law enforcement and armed forces have harassed, tortured, kidnapped, "disappeared," and killed innocent people in overzealous prosecution of the drug war. That won't work, said Contreras.

"You can't fight violence with more violence and breaking the laws," he said.

The protest came just days after President Calderon visited Ciudad Juárez in a bid to placate angry and frightened citizens. He apologized to the families of the massacred teenagers for initially blaming their deaths on gang warfare, said he was sending in 400 more federal police, and vowed to seek community cooperation in setting a new strategy against crime and violence. Still, he was booed by crowds during that visit. He returned again this week, touting a new security plan.

If Calderon is having a hard time placating angry Juárez residents, he's not having much better luck with the Catholic Church. The day after the Juárez protest, the Mexican Church's Council of Bishops issued a report critical of Calderon's drug policies.

In the report, the bishops said that using thousands of army troops to police Mexican cities raises severe human rights concerns. The bishops also pointed at a corrupt judicial system. They said many suspects are paraded before the media in "perp walks" even before being charged with any crime and called on the government to speed up police reforms so the troops can return to their barracks.

The bishops conceded that Calderon's deployment of the military initially had broad public support, but warned it was eroding. "As time passed, the participation of the armed forces in the fight against organized crime has created uncertainty in the population," the report said. "The armed forces have the obligation to respect human rights."

The bishops also harshly criticized the criminal justice system, saying few criminals are brought to justice because of corruption and inefficiency, while at the same time, innocent people are too often jailed because of police tactics. They noted that many of those people arrested and paraded before the media end up being released or charged with much lesser crimes than those announced at the time of their arrest.

The "perp walks" should stop, the bishops said. Authorities must "respect the judicial principle that someone is innocent until proven otherwise, because now we see that detainees are exhibited before the media before they are brought before judicial authorities."

More than halfway through his six-year term, President Calderon faces the threat of seeing his presidency defined by the bloody drug wars his policies have not only failed to stop, but have exacerbated. He seems to have no response except more of the same.

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America's twin wars without end -- the war on drugs and the war on terror -- continue to play out in the heart of Southwest Asia as the Obama administration beefs up US troop levels, but tries new tactics in its battle against the opium poppy and the Taliban insurgency grown wealthy off the drug trade. Eradication is out -- at least for now -- and interdiction and going after Taliban-linked drug lords is in.

opium field in Marja (from unodc.org) The thousands of new troops are to provide the muscle to wrest and hold territory from the Taliban. The new drug strategy is designed to win over Afghan farmers long enough for economic development projects to take hold once the troops and their NATO and Afghan Army counterparts secure key areas.

One of those is Helmand province in the south, producer of more than half of all the opium poppies in Afghanistan. If Helmand were an independent country, it would be the world's largest opium producer. Most of Helmand's opium is produced in the Helmand River valley, whose largest town, Marja (pop. 80,000), is a commercial hub for the opium and heroin trade. It is also the main Taliban stronghold in the province.

The Taliban generates anywhere from $100 million to $450 million a year in revenues with which it can buy lots of shiny new weapons and pay lots of impoverished Afghans to pick up arms against the foreigners and their "puppet regime" in Kabul. (With the total Afghan opium and heroin economy valued at $3 billion to $4 billion a year, clearly, a lot of people other than the Taliban are profiting from the trade as well.)

Because of the weakness of the Afghan state and the relatively small NATO and US military presence in Helmand up until now, the area has been largely under Taliban control for the past several years. Occasional Western military sweeps have driven the Taliban from different locales, but only temporarily. Once the troops pass through and once local inhabitants realize the government and the West have not come through on their promises of assistance and development, let alone a permanent presence, the Taliban reassert control.

The much ballyhooed Marja offensive now underway is designed to be different. This time, commanders say, the military occupation will be followed in short order by a "government in a box," a quick rolling out of Afghan police and officials accompanied by the provision of services and development and economic assistance. Once the military succeeds in driving the Taliban from Marja, the rapid-fire creation of a government presence will ensure that the local population switches loyalties from the insurgents to the national government.

Some 15,000 US, NATO, and Afghan Army forces are now one week into assault on Marja, a According to all accounts, the operation is going as expected, with Western and allied Afghan forces slowly occupying the town block by block. They raised the Afghan flag over Marja's central market Wednesday.

While the fighting is going as planned and the immediate result -- driving the Taliban from Marja -- is not in doubt, it hasn't been a cakewalk. While the local Taliban leadership and an unknown number of fighters fled before the fighting began, hundreds of fighters stayed behind to harass the incoming troops. NATO commanders report encountering a town laced with booby traps and bombs (IEDs), and soldiers have come under attack from machine gun and sniper fire. At least nine Western troops have been killed in the fighting so far, with Thursday being the bloodiest yet, with four killed.

And despite US commander Gen. Stanley McCrystal's repeated commitment to avoiding civilian casualties in order to squelch Afghans' anger at the death of their fellow citizens at the hands of foreign invaders, civilian casualties have occurred. At least 15 civilians have been killed, including 12 -- five children, five women, and two men -- were killed early on in a NATO missile strike. Three more died after being shot by NATO forces during an engagement with the Taliban.

Not everyone is buying Western assurances that this time will be any different than before. In an interview with the London newspaper The Independent, Afghanistan's "most famous woman," parliament member Malalai Joya, voiced deep skepticism about the operations aims and its impact on Afghan civilians.

"It is ridiculous," said Joya. "On the one hand they call on Mullah Omar to join the puppet regime. On another hand they launch this attack in which defenseless and poor people will be the prime victims. Like before, they will be killed in the NATO bombings and used as human shields by the Taliban. Helmand's people have suffered for years and thousands of innocent people have been killed so far."

Joya proved prescient on that count, with the NATO missile strike and shootings mentioned above and with repeated press accounts of the Taliban in fact using civilians as human shields. Reports have come of insurgent fighters shooting at troops from the second floor of a building while their family members stand on the third floor in a bid to either prevent retaliation against the shooter or to score propaganda points in the event Western forces kill or injure civilians.

She also scoffed at Allied claims that the West won't abandon Afghan civilians after the military surge. "They have launched such offensives a number of times in the past, but each time after clearing the area, they leave it and the Taliban retake it. This is just a military maneuver and removal of Taliban is not the prime objective."

Analysts who spoke to the Chronicle this week provided a decidedly mixed assessment of the offensive and what comes next. "That this is going well tactically is important progress," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on drugs and insurgencies at the Brookings Institution and author of the just published [and soon to be reviewed here] "Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs." "You have to remember that there have been a number of operations in Helmand where even tactically, we were losing because they were so under-resourced. Whether it will be a strategic success remains to be seen."

It isn't all up to the West, she noted. "What complicates things is that a lot of the outcomes aren't necessarily in the hands of NATO or the West, but will instead depend on the quality of the Afghan government," said Felbab-Brown. "This government-in-a-box plan has its drawbacks and flaws, but it is better than nothing. At least now there is some effort."

Watching the offensive unfold, Sanho Tree, international drug policy analyst for the Institute for Policy Studies, was reduced to quoting the ultimate realpolitiker, Henry Kissinger, on Vietnam. "As early as 1969, Kissinger wrote in the journal Foreign Affairs: 'We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition; our opponents aimed as psychological exhaustion. In the process we lost sight of one of the cardinal maxims of guerrilla war: the guerrilla wins if he does not lose; the conventional army loses if it does not win,'" Tree recited.

"This was a well-publicized invasion," Tree pointed out. "The leadership disappeared, but they'll be back to fight when the odds are better."

The Taliban weren't the only ones to take advantage of the warnings of a coming attack, said Raheem Yaseer of the University of Nebraska-Omaha Center for Afghan Studies. "The drug lords are very efficient," he said. "I'm sure they are all in safe havens now. NATO talked about the attack for so long that they've had time to take care of their commodities and themselves. The war on drugs part of this has not been very successful so far because of these warnings -- and these people are smart."

The offensive could cause some temporary disruptions of the drug trade in the area, Tree said, but was unlikely to make a major dent. "The lesson from the rest of the world is that these things don't really make much difference. Last year, it was a different 'opium capital,' next year, there will be another one."

The drug trade keeps shifting," agreed Yaseer. "When one place comes under attack, they go elsewhere. They buy the people, they buy the police; they will be the last to be affected."

"This won't have a great impact on the drug trade," said Felbab-Brown. "Marja doesn't determine what happens in Afghanistan -- that depends on interdiction and rural development, which is hard and takes a lot of time."

The ability of Western and Afghan government forces to conquer Marja was never in doubt. But the big question is whether they can build on the military success to turn the region into a bastion of support for the government, eliminate the insurgent threat once and for all, and continue to wage war on the opium poppy.

"Time will tell," said Tree. "Sequencing is key to a lot of this, and in terms of the drug stuff, sequencing is everything. That was the big argument with the advocates of eradication. They said eradicate first, then talk, but that was completely backwards. Now, with the hands-off policy for opium cultivation, you need to just let the prices fall, and people will switch to other crops, but that will only work until opium supplies shrink and prices go up again. So there is probably a one- or two-year window of opportunity to roll in infrastructure and install clean governance. You have to thread a lot of needles in a very short time, and the history of US involvement in Afghanistan doesn't suggest the odds are good."

"There will be a real temptation on the part of the West to define good government as suppressing poppies, but that could be just the opposite of how Afghans see it -- they will want to see economic development to replace their losses first," she said. "There will be a temptation for us to go for planting bans and suppression, but I don't think that's a model we should really be after. If a few months from now we decide it has stabilized and we try to prevent the harvest, people will be quite unhappy."

It's not a coincidence that the population is being somewhat receptive to the foreign troops, she said. "The troops are walking through poppy fields, not destroying them. The message is that the US is focusing on interdiction and development. If we eradicate later, that will result in great political destabilization.

"The Taliban have a lot of sympathizers there," said Yaseer. "The people are disillusioned with the government because for so long it couldn't do anything. And a lot of families have people on the payroll of the Quetta Shura [the now Pakistan-based Taliban led by Mullah Omar]. By some accounts, they were paying each household $700 a month. But now the pressure is on them to quit the Taliban."

Rapid economic and security development is key, said the Afghan scholar. "Destroying the poppy fields will help, but then you have to have an alternative ready," he said. "You can distribute food, help them grow wheat, provide fertilizer, things like that."

Taliban hard-liners will leave the area voluntarily to live to fight another day, Yaseer said, but unless an effective state presence is in place, they will come back. "The promises have to be kept and the aid has to move in immediately," he said. "They have to move in humanitarian assistance, reconstruction projects, sustenance for the people. And it has to be isolated from neighboring provinces where the Taliban will infiltrate back in from if those routes are not protected."

The military battle of Marja is winding toward its inevitable conclusion. Now, the battle for the hearts and minds of its residents is about to get underway. Meanwhile, the opium trade hiccups with minor disruptions, but lives on largely untouched, and the West remains mired in a land war in Asia fighting the twin ephemera of a war on an abstraction (terrorism) and a war on an inert substance (opium).

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A year ago, dismayed at the violence rocking its sister city of Ciudad Juárez just across the Rio Grande River, the city council in the remote Texas border city of El Paso unanimously passed a resolution calling for serious consideration of ending drug prohibition, only to see it vetoed by Mayor John Cook. Then, after heavy-handed warnings from US Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) and the city's delegation in the state legislature that such a resolution could threaten the city's funding, the city council backed down, failing to override Cook's veto.

With those votes and the controversy surrounding them, El Paso was thrust into -- and helped ignite -- a national debate on the country's drug policies. This week, the El Paso city council returned to the issue when, led by Councilmembers Beto O'Rourke and Steve Ortega, it considered a resolution calling for a "comprehensive examination of our country's failed War on Drugs," and advocating for "the repeal of ineffective marijuana laws" and their replacement with taxed, regulated, and controlled marijuana production, sales, and consumption for adults.

The resolution also called for an immediate meeting between Mexican President Felipe Calderon and US President Obama to address prohibition-related violence in Mexico, rejected the "militaristic" approach of Plan Merida, the three-year, $1.4 billion anti-drug assistance scheme for Mexico and Central America, called for that aid to be tied to strict human rights reporting requirements, and called for any additional aid to Mexico to be aimed at improving the country's "social, educational, and economic development."

"It's up to us to act and make some tough decisions and do some uncomfortable things," said O'Rourke, as he urged his colleagues to support the resolution.

"The fuel to the fire in Juárez is the profits of a black market," said Councilwoman Susie Byrd, explaining why she supported the marijuana regulation language.

But not all the council members were in accord. "We didn't talk about demand reduction. We didn't talk about prevention, and we didn't talk about treatment," said Councilman Carl Robinson, explaining his vote against the resolution.

The public also joined in the debate, with University of Texas-El Paso political science professor Tony Payan refreshing the council's member about the city's historic role in marijuana prohibition. "It was the first city council a hundred years ago that passed the first resolution forbidding the use of marijuana," he said. "One hundred years later we've come full circle, and now we're debating 100 years of a failed policy."

"We've got this war that's cost us billions of dollars in Iraq and there's a huge problem next, right next door!" said El Paso resident Eric Contreras.

"It is time to change the laws because drug prohibition is a failed policy," said El Paso resident Richard Newton, a retired veteran US Customs agent and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). "The bottom line is that the reason you have cartels in Juárez fighting each other is to sell drugs in the United States. They sell drugs because they can make money. Get rid of the money and you get rid of the cartels."

Not everyone was on board, however. "Quit calling it our sister city. No one wants a disease-riddled prostitute as a sister," said El Paso resident Armando Cardoza. [Ed: That was rude.]

After debating the resolution on Monday, the council voted, arriving at a 4-4 tie vote. Once again, Mayor Cook swooped in to block reform, even in the form of a resolution. His vote against the resolution broke the tie.

But that wasn't the end of it. The council then amended the resolution by dropping the paragraph referring to marijuana regulation and unceremoniously passed the amended resolution on a 6-2 vote. O'Rourke was one of the no votes, saying that regulating marijuana was an integral part of his approach.

Still, the El Paso city council has gone on record as condemning current US drug policies and demanding a shift to a smarter, more humane approach to drug sales and use. And it has clearly called on the US government to take a smarter, more humane approach to the drug violence just across the river in Juárez.

When asked what is was about El Paso that made it amenable to passage of such a resolution critical of the drug war, LEAP's Newton mentioned the city's unique location. Tucked into the triangular tip of far West Texas, El Paso not only borders bloody Ciudad Juárez, with its daily prohibition-related killings, but it also borders New Mexico, a state that has been a leader in drug policy reforms, ranging from medical marijuana to passing the country's first Good Samaritan drug overdose law to working with the Drug Policy Alliance on methamphetamine prevention and education programs.

"This is a strange city for Texas," Newton continued. "The state is very Republican, but there aren't any Republicans in El Paso. Bush didn't carry El Paso County. Silvestre Reyes has not had a Republican run against for several elections now. I wouldn't say El Paso is especially liberal or progressive, but it is Democratic."

Last year, Mayor Cook and Congressman Reyes pulled the plug on the resolution, but there is no sign yet that we will see a repeat this year. That would be progress, even if O'Rourke lost his marijuana regulation language. And he and the rest of the council still have three years to make up for city council's 1913 vote to criminalize marijuana. The city was a leader then; it can be a leader once again, only this time in the right direction.

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by Bernd Debusmann, Jr.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations make billions each year trafficking illegal drugs into the United States, profiting enormously from the prohibitionist drug policies of the US government. Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and called the armed forces into the fight against the so-called cartels, prohibition-related violence has killed over 16,000 people, with a death toll of nearly 8,000 in 2009 and over 1,000 so far in 2010. The increasing militarization of the drug war and the arrest of several high-profile drug traffickers have failed to stem the flow of drugs -- or the violence -- whatsoever. The Merida initiative, which provides $1.4 billion over three years for the US to assist the Mexican government with training, equipment and intelligence, has so far failed to make a difference. Here are a few of the latest developments in Mexico's drug war:

weapons confiscated by military in Reynosa, 2008 (from presidencia.gob.mx) Saturday, February 6

In Mazatlan, Sinaloa, six people were shot dead in a nightclub. Four armed men entered the club, shot dead two waiters and a customer, before turning and shooting dead three men who were at the front door.

Additionally, in the state of Chihuahua, it was announced that Governor Jose Reyes would be moving his office, the state legislature, and the state judiciary to Ciudad Juárez in an effort to combat the violence in the city.

Monday, February 8

In Michoacan, four men were killed in two different incidents. In one case, a man was shot dead by an assassin riding a motorcycle. In the other incident, three young men were gunned down near a taxi stand.

Tuesday, February 9

In Tijuana, two high-level drug traffickers belonging to a breakaway faction of the Tijuana cartel were captured by Mexican authorities. Jose Manuel Garcia Simental and Raydel Lopez Uriarte were part of an organization that was headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental before his capture on January 12. Their organization was formerly part of the Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO) before splitting away and joining the Sinaloa Federation led by "El Chapo" Guzman. Authorities believe the group if responsible for numerous kidnapping and murders in Baja California. Raydel Uriarte, it should be noted, was nicknamed "Crutches" after the condition in which he left many of his victims. These arrests effectively wipe out the senior leadership of the organization.

In Reynosa, Tamaulipas, six men were killed in a firefight between suspected cartel gunmen and elements of the Mexican army. Three of the dead were gunmen, and the other three were soldiers. Four soldiers were wounded and 12 suspects were taken into custody in the incident. The exact details of the battle are unclear, but it is known that a truck carrying an unknown quantity of marijuana was captured. On Wednesday, El Universal reported that a video of the incident was uploaded by unknown parties onto YouTube, which can be found here.

In other parts of Mexico, a group of armed men ambushed and killed two policemen in Guanajuato, and an unidentified body was found in a black trash bag in another part of the state. In Guerrero, authorities found the headless body of a municipal police commander. Two people were reported killed in Ciudad Juárez, and 11 in Sinaloa. Two bodies were found in an unmarked grave in the border region between Michoacan and Guerrero.

Wednesday, February 10

Heads belonging to four people were found, three of them in Sinaloa and one in Guerrero. The bodies to which they correspond have not been found yet, however. Three of the heads were found in Sinaloa in front of a restaurant and a school in the town of Palmillas. All three were young males. A message was left with the heads, which is indicative of a drug-related murder. The fourth head, discovered in Guerrero, was discovered in a cooler left by the side of a road, and a note was left in this case as well. Additionally, the Guerrerro Public Safety Secretariat noted that the man's facial skin had been removed.

Also on Wednesday, President Felipe Calderon declared he will not withdraw the Mexican army from Ciudad Juárez. More than 5,500 troops occupy the border city, home to more than 2,600 prohibition-related deaths last year. They have been accused of failing to stop the violence, if not exacerbating it, and of human rights violations.

Total Body Count for the Week: 173

Total Body Count for the Year: 1,153

Total Body Count for 2009: 7,724

Total Body Count since Calderon took office: 17,358

Read the last Mexico Drug War Update here.

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