Mexican Murder Camps. How bad the illegal drug trade has become.

[superpatriotman]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/01/mexican-murder-training-camps-are-very-real-and-very-scary/47616/

"They would give them a machete. If not, they'd give them a sledge hammer and they'd tell them to kill the people they had tied up," said admitted Zetas drug cartel hitman Wenceslao Tovar in a Texas court yesterday--giving a rare glimpse of just how terrifying Mexican drug cartels really are. Tovar, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen, was called to the stand to testify during the trial of an alleged fellow hitman Gerardo Castillo Chavez, but understandably Tovar's stories about his murder camp in San Fernando, Mexico--the site of Mexico's largest mass grave ever--seems to have stolen the trial's thunder and the attention of news agencies.

more at link

Is legalization really the solution to this?

40,000+ dead in five years.

[bemildred]

1. Hey, you criminalize it, what you get is lots of criminals.

In this case, very well funded ones too.

[arcane1]

2. It's the only solution

These aren't tequila cartels, or tobacco cartels, or coffee cartels.

[superpatriotman]

4. Who will you buy cocaine from?

Pfizer or the Sinaloa cartel?

How about Crystal Meth? Is home brewing going to be okay or will you buy it from the pharmacy under the trade name CrystalMeth®?

[RainDog]

7. who will you buy yours from?

or do you just assume that anyone who can look at history and the present and see that legalization makes sense is someone who wants to use x or y?

that's really idiotic thinking.

but, yeah, prohibition showed us that when a substance is illegal, people kill in order to make money from it b/c they have no recourse to the legal system and are not regulated by any govt. entity.

it's not that hard to figure out.

[arcane1]

8. I wouldn't buy either of those drugs, but that's irrelevant.

How many people are killed each year in the underground beer market?

If you have a better solution, I'd love to hear it, but this stuff wasn't going on 100 years ago before the nanny state kicked in.

[Zalatix]

3. How strong is the drug trade in Singapore?

[superpatriotman]

5. I have no idea.

Why do you ask?

Drugs make you feel good in both countries. They also destroy in both countries.

[COLGATE4]

6. Probably because Singapore has the death penalty

for drug dealing. I imagine its rate of drug dealers is pretty low.

[Zalatix]

10. From what I hear...

Drug dealers don't deal in Singapore, but they're free to launder their money in Singapore.

[RainDog]

11. ...and they cane people for overstaying their visa

that's just the sort of society I want to live in.

for the sadistic freaks here:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c9_1304013159

[Capitalocracy]

9. "Is legalization really the solution to this?"

What do you propose?

It's the best solution I've heard.

Of course, you do still have to round all these people up for murder. But their replacement rate will be reduced to 0 if you legalize drugs.

[killbotfactory]

12. Legalization would help, imo

By banning something that is easy to smuggle and in high demand, it becomes highly profitable and run by organizations who have neither the ability or desire to rely on authorities to run their business. Where a legal business would file a lawsuit against a competitor, an illegal business will resort to violence.

Because of the highly profitable nature of this illegal business it tends to flourish in economically depressed areas, which also tend to have a hostile relationship with the legal authorities to begin with. The nature of the ban on drugs means there is little moral imperative to complying with drug laws. Having a lot of ordinary people deriving profit from the drug trade allows cartels to operate with impunity. When the choices are between speaking out, losing money, and getting tortured and killed, or tacitly supporting them and continuing to profit, people who wouldn't otherwise tolerate a violent gang that assassinates, kidnaps, and tortures people to make money, keep their head down and try not to rock the boat.

Legalization, in my view, would undermine this tacit base of support. US demand for drugs drives their profits, if people in the US can acquire them through legal means, it will destroy a large part of their business. They would still be smuggling, kidnapping, murdering, and torturing people, but they would be severely undermined.

[Starry Messenger]

13. Well, keeping it illegal is leading to this, soo...

what's your plan? 18 foot high electrical fences that go down to the roots of the earth too, all along the border?

[Nostradammit]

14. It's the ONLY solution to this.

Not sure why that's so hard for some people to understand.