Dear Mexican: I am a half-breed, as they say (Mexican father, Anglo mother), and recently I've been reading a lot about the drug violence in Mexico. I've become increasingly disturbed by the way in which we Americans are directly contributing to this war by supplying the demand for drugs while still making it illegal to possess them. My boyfriend is an occasional smoker of the green stuff, and occasionally I partake as well. But, of course, lately it gives me pause. My boyfriend is confident that the stuff he smokes is coming from California, or someplace "local." I come from Texas, so to me Texas and California are pretty much Mexico, if you catch my drift. What are the odds that the "quality" stuff he is smoking is not in some way contributing to the Mexican drug cartels? Hope you can help.
Worried I'm a Hypocrite
Dear Gabacha: Hard to say, although more likely than not. A 2009 finding by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy estimated more than 60 percent of Mexican drug cartels' $13.8 billion revenue in 2006 came from marijuana--but the White House is as trustworthy on stats involving drugs as a Mexican is with safekeeping a bottle of Herradura. The RAND Corporation--hardly Up in Smoke acolytes--put the figure at somewhere between 15 and 26 percent in a 2010 study. What both sides do acknowledge, however, is that the relaxing of marijuana laws in states such as California has led to a boom in domestic production (read my colleague Nick Schou's awesome feature from earlier this year, "Into the Emerald Triangle," which reads like Heart of Darkness via Ken Kesey) that is eating directly into the cartels' profits, leading to more narcos shifting production from Mexico to the United States. If you're concerned about where your weed comes from, just do what acolytes of farmers markets do: buy local. Make sure your neighborhood pot dealer is free of any nefarious connections. Grow your own, and tell the feds it's Mexican oregano if they ask. Better yet, pressure your local and state government to legalize the ganga--and, while you're at it, can you also press for amnesty as well?
What I would like to know is, why, as Latinos, we never have agencies like MALDEF, which claim to serve the need of Hispanics whose rights have been violated in some way, come up to the plate and actually do heavy talking like Sharpton or Jesse Jackson? Right now, with so much shit being thrown at us Latinos, we need someone we can count on to be our voice in the media. Every talk show I've seen, who discuses Latinos issues? All white--waz up with that? What's your take on the subject?
Aztlán Broadcasting Company
Dear ABC: Speaking of being doped up...concentrate, CONCENTRATE! You're talking about two issues here, so hay que start with the alphabet organizations, MALDEF (Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund) and NCLR (National Council of La Raza). They do good work on the local level, ensuring equity in school and work, but fail on a national level because they're good liberals instead of the chingón radicals Mexis need to truly fight Know Nothings. That said, they and other organizations did release a survey earlier this year showing the brown-out on our nation's Sunday-morning political talk shows: from March to May of this year, only five out of 234 guests on FOX News Sunday, Face the Nation, This Week, and Meet the Press were "Hispanic"--and I'm pretty certain all of them were the Mexican's amigo, Ruben Navarrette, Jr.! The reason? Obvious: networks still think we're a bunch of banditos. The solution: make your own media, cabrones, whether blogs, YouTube channels, or porn.
Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net, be his fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or ask him a video question at youtube.com/askamexicano!
Mexican stuff always has been and probably always will be second rate and plus for some reason their drug trade seems to involve beheading people lol.
Buy local and buy American :)
you have to break the law:
"He was dying and his doctors said nothing more could be done. The father knew that cannabis had been known to cure cancer. He asked the doctors about that. Not only didn’t the oncologists take such questions seriously, they said that to even discuss such a treatment within the walls of the hospital could cause the hospital to lose federal funding.
So the parents, receiving advanced cancer care for the boy in a state that does not allow medical marijuana, had a choice to make. They could do the right thing, the legal thing, and let their child die because to try and save him would be illegal. Or they could do the other right thing and give him the oil from a plant that anyone can grow in their backyard–but which happens to be a controlled substance.
That Cash is alive and laughing like a three-year old today tells you all you need to know about his parents. They are outlaws."
http://coloradoindependent.com/90826/the-cash-hyde-story-one-of-the-youngest-medical-marijuana-patients-is-thriving
These things take time and that is just the way America works..good , bad or indifferent.
the cartels.
Don't like the laws? Pursue political change.
That seems to be your point.
We have deprived our farmers of a quality crop. Deprived our environment of a sustainable resource. Imprisoned millions of people. Made the government fatter, and private prisons a growth industry. Made fat bankers even fatter from money laundering. Made the oil companies too big to handle. We've introduced and lived with more than 50,000 unnatural chemicals that could have otherwise been natural. We've depleted our forests. We've turned our border with Mexico into the most dangerous war zone on earth. We've pushed the deadly and dangerous alcohol and tobacco over an all natural, non-toxic, relatively harmless plant. ... And I could keep going.
We MUST end the madness.
L E G A L I Z E .
Gustavo, love your column in our weekly arts and culture newsletter!
It is much easier to end the black-market violence by simply expanding the legal definition of "legitimite medical uses" of drugs like opiates/heroin, cocaine and psychedelics so that doctors are allowed to prescribe them for "stress-relief". If drug dispensing is left to the discretion of doctors, with little interference from the DEA (which would be likely disbanded) then people who want drugs will find doctors willing to prescribe.
Marijuana should be more-or-less unrestricted, but people should be encouraged to ingest it in harmless ways, not by smoking it. It's safe & harmless when made into tea for instance, but smoking anything is highly toxic.
Doctors prescribe you stuff and monitor your use because what they're giving you is deadly dangerous, and highly toxic -- it will kill you if you use it wrong, or take too much. That's just not the case with cannabis.
Pretty soon Mexicans will be coming here to buy their weed, like they do guns :-) USA! USA!