This is regarding Niki Payne's outstanding column: "New pot raids call for new leadership" In the Dec. 12 issue of the Daily Forty-Niner.
Beyond just the use of marijuana as medicine, why do so many of our politicians want to keep a natural herb that has never been documented to kill a single person, a criminalized substance? Why do apparently intelligent people want to arrest and jail other people who use or sell an easy-to-grow weed?
Perhaps to understand their position, we should study the history of U.S. alcohol prohibition. The notorious gangster Al Capone made most of his illegally obtained money from alcohol prohibition. Capone often bragged that he "owned" the city of Chicago. Obviously, he didn't own all of the city of Chicago; however, he had most, or all, of the politicians and police who ran the city on his payroll.
Capone was a successful businessman and it's not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels of today are following his business model. It's also not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels may have many high-level politicians and police officials on their payroll.
The type of politicians the drug cartels would have on their payroll are those who advocate the continuation of the status quo of drug prohibition, which is making the drug cartels so fabulously wealthy.
I'm not saying that any specific so-called "drug warrior" is on the payroll of the drug cartels -- it's just a little suspicious. I'm just a little suspicious of the motives of all of the drug-war cheerleaders.
Source: Daily Forty-Niner (Cal State Long Beach,CA Edu)
Copyright: 2007 Daily-Niner
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