This is how well the "War on Drugs" is going.

[TalkingDog]

http://visual.ly/mexican-cartels-0

Yay, Team America! Our tax dollars at work

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Nice graphical representation. The feds spend about $30 billion a year to achieve this.

[RKP5637]

2. The US is expert at making problems worse. n/t

[Warpy]

3. Thanks for this. This is what has already happened

What will happen in the future is an increased body count as they jostle each other for the most lucrative routes and they war against the home grown gangs for territory. This will make the 1920s gangsters look like Sunday school teachers.

Maybe then we'll be able to break the DEA stranglehold on US drug policy, an insane policy which is a total failure and serves no one but the gangs and the big banks that launder their money.

[spanone]

4. legalize and put them out of business overnight.

[RainDog]

5. would you please cross post this in the Drug Policy Forum?

thank you!

excellent information.

such a tragedy.

[TalkingDog]

6. Found it!

Will post it right now.

[Iggy]

7. Helloooooo? Congress?

and it's more than a bit telling that when Obama was asked not long ago about the decriminalization of
pot, he laughed.

weak, very weak.

[felix_numinous]

8. I wish there were studies

of all the kickbacks being received by federal (and international) agencies to keep this dysfunctional program operating. Because this would open up the whole can of worms they would not be able to put back in the can, IMHO.

I know there have been thwarted investigations into CIA and other international covert ops who were double dealing and making billions on this war. I think Bush and his cronies are knee deep in it too. (I think Octafish has the best archives)

Certainly the prison industrial complex is doing well.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrystalis/7594632998/][img][/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrystalis/7594632998/]prisonexplosion[/url]


http://www.drugwarrant.com/2009/08/incarceration-nation-and-drug-war-profiteers/

[RainDog]

11. Oh - would you also please post in the Drug Policy Forum as an OP?

This is great information to have available - if you do an OP it will be easy to find.

[RKP5637]

12. You hit the nail square on the head. The inane drug policies continue

because the enforcers are reaping huge profits. It a big profit machine all the way around similar to the MIC war machine. Ain't America great! American Exceptionalism.

[xchrom]

9. We're not winning. To say the least. Nt

[riderinthestorm]

10. K&R. Great article and graphs. But we knew all of this already right? The WOD is a failure nt

[hifiguy]

13. Pissing money down a rathole for the benefit

of the militarized "cops" and the prison-industrial complex.

[Meiko]

14. Here is another good article

about the DEA's foreign operations and how they have become totally militarized. All of these DEA agents need to pack their bags, take off their BDU's, turn in their helicopters, machine guns, grenades and all the other goodies they have collected and come on home. If other countries have a drug problem then they are going to have to deal with it.

The DEA needs to stop carrying large scale raids at great cost when all they retrieve is a small amount of weed and a small bag of crack, C'mon guys let's get real. They arrest thousands for small amount of weed and other drugs which are clearly for personal use. They are so desperate sometimes they arrest people for paraphernalia. These arrests send many people to prison for non violent offenses. And we wonder why are jails are so full.

According to The New York Times, which has access to a cache of DEA-related State Department cables, the DEA now has 87 offices in 63 countries – pretty much double the number of countries from 20 years ago, before 9/11. Today, the Global War on Terror has infused the drug interdiction agency with an expanded mission as a paramilitary and intelligence-gathering agency on par with the CIA and U.S. Special Forces overseas.

Who are they working for anyway? I mean the taxpayers are footing the bill for these people to run military style operations out of the country, something wrong with that. We need to petition our congress critters to cut funding on these overseas operations.

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2011/01/03/wikileaks-highlights-drug-war-mission-creep/