Drug Wars tooooo close to home!
 

So--I live in a border town. El Paso/Cd. Juarez is essentially one big city, with an international border in the middle. Lots of commerce between the two. But let's just say--tourism is way down. People used to go to visit, to shop, to eat, to drink--not so much any more.

Over 200 people have been killed this year alone--many of them police officers--in a war to control drug smuggling routes into the US. The violence is horrendous: executions, drive-by shootings are the least of it. People's heads cut off, kidnappings, multiple graves unearthed in suburban houses, (Houses of Death);

--and that's not even mentioning the mysterious and still unsolved rape-murders of perhaps 400 hundred women over the last decade, which may or may not be connected.

All this is happening a stone's throw from my very door. Is this on anyone's radar but El Pasoans?

Very, very scary.

Do what I do ,
Step out in the side yard and Boom with yer .44 mag lever action ,
it keeps the Meth heads away

Wait till those illegal mofo's start bringing it you your side of the fence.
Arm yourself, shoot to kill.

Yea, I live in a drug town/crime town...No one from Santa fe will live here..The whites are scared of this place. But the outbreak of violence inside santa fe makes me want to stay here on the outskirts on our quiet little property. Oh and I am ready for a B and E. I am also ready to be attacked in the city. Don't care..I will defend myself. They know it and I know it..They kind of test you first to see exactly how stupid you are, and I get that look about me that says that I will fight to the death over my purse or any of my belongings...so..they back off. They actually only like really easy targets.

It isn't just the illegals either...the whites and everybody else get addicted to the drugs too..Like that guy scouting out my wallet at the gas station the other day......

This week's death toll: 25

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_929787...ce=most_viewed

I just say nuke the other side of the fence and then mine it.

then where would our teenagers go to get drunk?

Oh, I forgot! Merc's house!

:D
Not!!!
:D

Your right-wing blather is starting to get as boring as Radar's libertarian blather.

The difference is I don't take it seriously.

If you say so. But that doesn't mean your simplistic answers to complex problems will make eyes roll any less than Radars.

[tongueincheek]
That is because you fail to recognize the true depth of the simplistic statements [/tongueincheek]

Weekend of death
 

and it's just beginning. From today's paper:

Grizzly? Grisly, surely?

But for the record I am quite horrified.
I will remember this when I hear another hell in a handbasket report about crime in London.

yeah, decapitated bodies lying strewn about are Not. Good. Needless to say, I won't be crossing the border anytime soon--at least not into Juarez.

But I miss Mexico! I want to go San Miguel de Allende and rent a villa there for a while. And never come back.

lol! Grizzly...I noticed that too...I started to get confused about the actual location of these events.

I think you should contemplate moving Cloud. Srsly. What happened to moving? If you think I am telling you to run, I am. No harm in it. When the crime takes over your area, the quality of your life decreases significantly. Why not go somewhere that you don't have to worry about it on a daily basis...whether you are going to get robbed or not..etc.

It is not such a bad thing...;)

So, 1,000 people dead so far. I mean, it's practically inconceivable.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10573358

can you get me ganja?

mota!

Border Patrol and Customs are siezing that stuff by the truckload down here.

One of the reasons I am going back to OTR driving is my desire to buy new and higher quality firearms than I currently own. The drug wars are a big part of that decision.

Even my wife, a native-born El Pasoan, is starting to look at real estate elsewhere, although she denies it's due to the rapidly rising crime rate here and just across the border.

But she doesn't fool me... I see her eyes and feel her emotions on the rare occasions that we travel across the border. She is getting scared.

I even worry since I'm not going to be home to protect her and the dogs (dog theft is rising, too) while I'm earning a living.

If only we would hit a big lottery and be able to retire with all the things we want. Sigh. I could see myself on a twenty-acre spread with horses, dogs and an airstrip.

She wants to buy new furniture, clothes and the usual girl stuff. I want something typically guy-ish. This:


So back to work I go. But I still dream of a small farm/ranch in the Smoky Mountains.

Cops can't help, you have to help yourself.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g...YviEwD93F8OD00

the death toll is about 1400 so far this year. A stone's throw from the second or third safest city in the US. It's just unbeliveable. From Newsweek:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/171251

Do you ever think about moving Cloud? I don't think I'd want to live in an area like that.

but the only place safer in the US is Honolulu, which is a bit far.

it's paradoxical.

I think I'd be scared of it spilling over the boarder.

people are scared of that, yes. But so far, it really hasn't happened.

legalizing marijuana would help a great deal, I think, 'tho there are other drugs.

Well, I hope for your sake that where you live stays safe. :)

Where did you get that notion. I lived in Hawaii for 3 years, I would hardly call it the model of low crime rates.

yeah the problem with eliminating the suppliers is that if a demand exists, a new supplier will step to the plate. You need to eliminate the market. Flooding the market with cheap or even free product for a generation would solve a lot of problems...

*I* think about moving all the time. Tho not because of Ciudad Juarez, because it's a DESERT and has no redeeming qualities. I keep trying to talk the wife into moving to Tennessee, which is beautiful, has trees, all four seasons, not just December, January, February and summer (natch!) and I even like the accent better. There needs to be a long vacation there. She will understand better when she sees the place. Knoxville, Chattanooga, anything east of the Smokies is ideal (I'm severely allergic to tornadoes). The best moonshine comes from there, too. Must be the water...

from the Newsweek article.

I think it's pretty here, and I like the weather. It appears barren at first (okay, it is pretty barren) but the landscape grows on you.

It's pretty cheap and laid back and not too crowded, all of which are important to me.

note that I am a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is expensive, frenetic, and crowded. But pretty.

I love it where I am. The severe, bitter cold, and seemingly interminable winter keeps a lot of the real losers uninterested in living here.

<--- The whiners on the other hand seem to thrive.

excuse me? SHOT?
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11142648

oh, I like the legalization idea much better!

I was speaking from personal experience. The crime was bad, mostly theft, and stuff of that nature.

I was wondering if livng in a place like El Paso is as scary as the news reports it to be.

Or any other border town for that matter. I hear of kidnappings and decapitation. What is the Mexican government involvement?

@ brian. Why not move because of Ciudad Juarez?

An interesting take on the economic benefits, realized by the US, of the "war on drugs." A three part article here:
http://www.drugwar.com/fittsnarco1.shtm

Sam & Dave would make the same money if one load weren't illegal.:eyebrow:

that Solari index was NEVER 100%--we're just more aware of problems to kids now. (slightly off topic, I know)

It was where I grew up.

Yeah, I'd say the solari index where I was a kid was in the 90's easily. Around here it's in the 60s or 70s. But I think that is a function of the relatively small population. And a hyper vigilant police force, which I have no complaints about. 31mph and out of state plates = license and registration please.

Filled with quite a bit of conspiracy theory. Not sure how much credibility it can have with insinuations like that.

Not scary, really. Just the Mexico side is unsafe, IMO, but I'll take any excuse to move that convinces the wife to move.

Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration

I think so too

The US-Mexico border is less than half the length of the US-Canada border, without even including Alaska-Canada.

The collapse of the Mexican political structure is apparently very possible in the near future. We should be concentrating on THAT border instead of worrying about Iraq and the border between Pakinstan and Afghanistan.

The National Guard was created for exactly that purpose, protect the Homeland, NOT to be fighting wars in some far off country.

Hopefully things will calm down by November. We've already booked our flight and hotel for two weeks in Puerto Vallarta.

Another reason to BUILD THE WALL.

Another reason to repeal the drug laws! If people could grow their own pot, or knew someone who grew it locally, which accounts for 60% of the illegal drug trade with Mexico, then it would take away 60% of their power and money and violence would go down. Not to say, it would really stimulate the economy! :D

Somewhere around 2/3rds of the people i know who do smoke grow their own here in the States, or get it from someone they know who grows their own. That said, the drug trade def. needs to be handled one way or another.

The drug wars aren't about pot really. When people say drugs people jump to pot.............Out of a personal affinity maybe?

Drugs are bad mm'kay?

But pot is the most common illegal drug, isn't it?

The term "illegal" is loose. My room-mate used to grow it legally in San Francisco. I have also talked to police that quite frankly, also are not concerned with it. It's the bigger fish they are after usually. Sometimes that includes pot but they really are irritated by all the cocaine. I don't blame them. It causes a lot of problems.

Oregon is looking at growing and taxing it. $98.00 an ounce, I believe.

A friend also uses pot for "medical" purposes in CO legally. It is legal sometimes.

Let me elaborate... every report I've seen, on TV or in print, has said 60% of the illegal drug trade coming in from Mexico is from pot. Not only that, Mexican drug cartels are now growing it on OUR public lands! :mad2: So, repealing that ONE LAW for that ONE PLANT would put a serious dent in their business. (who outlaws a damn plant anyway?)

And only stupid people would buy weed from Mexico, or from some source where they don't know where it comes from or how it's grown. Gawd, can you imagine all the toxic chemicals it would be laced with? yuckaroo! :greenface

Here's the rub. Medicinal marijuana is legal in some states, but federal law usurps state law. Eric Holder, the new Attorney General, has said he will leave it up to states how they want to deal with pot, and the DEA will no longer go after people in states that have legalized it. That, however, is new. The DEA most certainly would go after people in legal states before. In fact, they made an effort to rub it in in states where the people had voted to legalize it. And it just makes the crime worse.

When will we learn prohibition doesn't work? It didn't work back in the 20s with alcohol, and it doesn't work now with drugs. We will NEVER win the "war" on drugs. It is a big, fat waste of money, and it tramples on people's individual rights. All drug laws should be repealed.

Yah I totally agree with that. But I was just trying to emphasize the fact that the term, "illegal" was loose.

Yes I know a lot of the drugs coming in are pot. But people seem to think that the "drug war" is the "pot war"....

Legalizing "drugs" is a little different from legalizing pot. We have already discussed here the statistics on legalized heroin and other drugs....the reports coming back were not good and countries that legalized other drugs are now taking that back because of the ensuing violence and crime.

:)
The Onion Headline that still makes me laff: "Drugs Wins War on Drugs."

ah, gotcha. :D

I just find it very disingenuous when people rant about illegal drugs, while TV is overloaded with commercials from pharmceutical companies pushing THEIR drugs.

I think ANY PLANT should be legal, including mushrooms, peyote, etc. I understand some drugs really ARE evil, like ICE, and heroin, and crack. But, I don't think people should be thrown in jail for using them. Confiscate them and destroy them on the spot maybe, I don't know. But, if someone is using drugs, but they aren't breaking any other laws, then I believe it is their right to do that. As long as they aren't hurting someone else.