Soldiers parade Erick Valencia Salazar aka/El 85, of the Jalisco
New
Generation Cartel before the media, March
12. Would legalization
put he
and his associates largely out of business, as advocates
on legalization claim?
The Lesson on Prohibition
that the U.S. Refuses to Learn (La Jornada, Mexico)
“In less than a
year, at least 30 people have been killed in U.S. cities by individuals who had
little trouble obtaining high-powered weapons to perpetrate one massacre after
another. To our knowledge, marijuana use was not responsible for any such massacre,
while the prohibition on its sale has been.”
Jesus 'The King' Zambada, one of the senior leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel: On April 4, Zambada became the latest in a flood of drug kingpins extradited to the U.S. from Mexico.
Two events that rocked the city of Oakland, California last
Monday were the subjects of headlines in major U.S. newspapers. Just as one
person murdered seven students at a university of that city, a group of federal
agents carried out a raid on an institution for studying marijuana cultivation.
Without apparent connection, the timing of the two events triggered a series of
questions in various media about the contradiction of laws, the application of
which has the opposite effect of what society would expect of a legal body constituted
to protect it.
In the first case, a 42-year-old individual riddled seven
students with bullets as they sat in class at Christian Oikos
University. The killer may commit the massacre for, among other reasons, the
ease with which one may buy all types of weapons in many U.S. states.
In the second case, a group of federal agents arrested the
director of Oaksterdam University, which is dedicated
to the study of the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and
at which no one had committed a crime. Under California law, it is legal to
sale marijuana for medicinal purposes, as opposed to federal law, that
considers this a crime.
Notwithstanding continuing demands to ban the indiscriminate
sale of guns, powerful organizations like the National Rifle Association have
found enough allies in the U.S. Congress to stop legislation that penalizes the
unrestricted sale and use of guns in the country. In contrast, it is noteworthy
that in Congress, there are those who refuse to legislate to allow the
regulated sale of marijuana as is the case with alcohol. Opponents of the idea argue
that it would cause a substantial increase in consumption and addiction.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
More than one organization that promotes legal marijuana sales
has pointed out that not every person in the U.S. became an alcoholic when the
ban on the sale of alcohol was lifted, but it did put an end to one of the most
criminal periods in the nation’s history.
In less than a year, at least 30 people have been killed in U.S.
cities by individuals who had little trouble obtaining high-powered weapons to
perpetrate one massacre after another. To our knowledge, marijuana use was not responsible
for any such massacre, while the prohibition on its sale has been.
In any case, the question is: if what one wants is to
protect the population, wouldn’t it be less incongruous to also legislate a ban
on the unrestricted acquisition of firearms, based on the overwhelming evidence
of their lethal effect?
There is no turning back: the world is upside down, or to be
more precise, it is standing on its head.
