CNN's Lou Dobbs Is Clueless When It Comes to the Drug War

CNN's Lou Dobbs Is Clueless When It Comes to the Drug War
By Tony Newman, AlterNet
May 16, 2008.

Mexico is experiencing a bloodbath right now thanks to drug prohibition. Drug wars are killing more Mexicans each year than Americans are perishing in Iraq. Three thousand Mexicans have died since January 2007. Lou Dobbs addressed the issue on Friday, May 9, after Esteban Robles Espinosa, the head of Mexico City's investigative police was assassinated. Mr. Espinosa's death came on the heels of Federal Police Chief Edgar Millan being gunned down Thursday outside his Mexico City home -- the tenth federal police officer killed by suspected drug cartel members in three weeks. Lou Dobbs was outraged by the mass killings and wondered whether Washington is paying attention. While I appreciate Lou Dobbs' frustration with the mass killings, his analysis is totally clueless and his "solutions" will no doubt cause more harm than good. Here are three myths from Lou Dobbs that deserve attention.

Dobbs Myth No. 1 -- Washington Is Not Paying Enough Attention and Needs to Step Up Drug War

Lou Dobbs talks about our elected officials not paying attention and then quotes the White House press secretary calling on Congress to approve the Merida initiative. The law would provide funding to the Mexican government to "break the drug pipeline that ends up on America's streets." Far from not doing anything, our government's policy actually fuels the killings. For forty years we have been waging a "war on drugs" and "pushing" our failed zero-tolerance policies on other countries. Just what does our $40 billion-a-year drug war get us? Our prisons are exploding with nonviolent drug offenders, thousands die from street violence generated by prohibition's black market along the border, and drugs remain as plentiful and easy to obtain as ever.

Dobbs Myth No. 2 -- We Need to Amplify the Drug War to Protect the Kids

Far from protecting kids, drug war-funded education programs have consistently misinformed our youth, creating an atmosphere of mistrust and disbelief. Despite 30 years of "Just Say No" rhetoric, half of all high-school seniors will smoke marijuana before they graduate. Teens say it is easier to get marijuana than alcohol, as drug dealers never check identification. The bitter irony of the drug war is that the same week the high-level Mexican police were murdered in the streets, 75 college students at San Diego State University were arrested for selling drugs. Yeah, the drug war is really protecting the kids.

Dobbs Myth No. 3 -- "Open Border Advocates Are Responsible for a Losing Role in Our Drug War"

What is a Lou Dobbs segment without slamming the "open border" advocates? Now Dobbs is blaming them for drugs coming into the country. We can't keep drugs out of maximum security prisons, but he thinks we are going to keep drugs out of the United States? Drug prohibition makes plants like marijuana and coca incredibly valuable. We can build as many fences and place as many agents on the border as we want, but as there are huge profits to be made, there will be people ready to smuggle and even to kill over the control of the massive, global drug market.

Please read the entire article at:

http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/85547/

follow the money. But then, no one in the 'media' would after Gary Webb.

Gee, just watch his commercials

Dobbs is a monomaniac who sees the whole world through the prism of his border fetish.

and every drug user in the world will deny this but that doesn't make it untrue. THEY are , each and every one of them responsible for the deaths being caused by the drug lords , each time they snort,shoot, inhale, or sniff their illegal drug of choice they contribute to more of it.... say what you please, call me any name you like, I could care less but this is a true statement and no matter how hard any of them attempt to deny it or separate themselves from this fact it is still true, denial doesn't make it less so.

It is the prohibition which causes those things. Prohibiting the plant creates a black market which would not exist without the prohibition on the plant. The black market gives rise to the drug lords- not the existence of the plant.

Don't lay a cloak of guilt on my shoulders because others are evil.

By that standard the only reason we have any crime is because there are laws against them... hmmm lets see, if it were legal to kill anyone you wanted we would have no murder... what a concept, no laws whatsoever ergo no crime... LOL

I'm not talking about one or three organized crime rings, I'm talking about an organized effort, in each and every city, town, and municipality, in which you can obtain those services.

YOU are providing the false argument. The harming of others is objectively wrong. The imbibing of a substance is apparently not. We have laws allowing such for far more harmful substances than that provided by this plant. By the way- are you advocating for the elimination of a species when you advocate prohibition of cannabis? Because cannabis sativa is a species, and I hotly object to the elimination of any species of life. You should, too. It's as wrong as genocide. In fact- it is genocide.

I did not say that "the only reason we have any crime is because there are laws against them". You tried to put those words in my mouth. In the parlance, you "fale". I said that the prohibition of one plant creates a black market for the supply of that plant. That black market exists because the plant was known to hold certain mind-altering properties before the laws were enacted. People still want the plant, and law law can possibly change the desire. Unfortunately for you, cannabis has been used, in civilized societies, for literally thousands of years, and the only time a 'drug war' has been waged against it has been now, today.

There is no logical reason to prohibit the use of cannabis.

It is only in this place, at this time, that we have had this longstanding, ludicrous prohibition. We are paying for the results in terms of prison population and taxpayer dollars. Would you like to drug test everyone?

Would you like the most productive portion of the population to go to jail?

Here's to hoping a drug dog sniffs cannabis on the bills in your wallet someday. 80%+ of US currency carries drug residue. Keep it in mind if you ever decide to cross the border.

You are unwilling to accept your share of any of the blame.. LOL I have spent many many years on both sides of this fence and believe me anyone who thinks that drug use is acceptable mature behavior is deluded. I wil never change my side of this and I doubt you will either I have said what I believe and know to be true....

Obviously you have some hangups about drugs that our government decided should be illegal.

The drug war is responsible for record breaking profits for the worst of society. People will ALWAYS use drugs and it's been that way throughout all of history. It's who we are. The DEMAND will always be there. Should we look at it from a medical perspective (progressive) or a jail perspective (republican)? Don't go telling me that I should be in jail because of a choice I make with my body where i harm no one or that i'm responsible for border killings because i buy drugs from a dealer that was put in business by prohibition. Thats like saying I'm responsible for Iraqi casualties because i pay taxes.

We got Al Capone with alcohol prohibition and miltimillion dollar drug lords/wealthy street gangs with drug prohibition. Now tell me, how were the record profits of the black market bootleg industry destroyed? How were folks like Al Capone put out of business?

I don't buy into the argument that if drugs are legalized for 21+ like alcohol then our country would turn into a nation of raving drug addicts.

"By that standard the only reason we have any crime is because there are laws against them"

The more laws we have against what people do, the more crime will be committed, obviously.

"if it were legal to kill anyone you wanted we would have no murder"

Don't even try comparing murder to nonviolent drug use.

If you made food illegal tomorrow, there would be a black market that was rife with crime, etc.

Nearly all peoples of the world use drugs and always have. Making them illegal is the criminal act.

Your posting on a PC made with plastiks. Oil comes from the middle east ( :think: ). We're at war in the middle east. Some of that oil used to make you're computer comes from Iranian reserves. Iran is our emeny.

You don't support the troops!!11!!!111!ONE!

































:sarcasm:

Would you blame beer and alcohol drinkers for the deaths cause by mobsters during the prohibition era?

I hope not.

Drug prohibition, not the drug consumer, is responsible for the violence associated with the black market drug trade.

Tell me about all the violence associated with the alcohol trade, why don't you? Oh, there isn't any...because it is a legal and regulated business.

"Drug-related violence" is almost always a misnomer. If you're talking about anything from the Mexican narcos killing cops to the street-corner shootouts over who gets to sell crack where, you're talking about "prohibition-related violence."

To the degree you support drug prohibition, YOU are responsible for prohibition-related violence. That's a true statement, no matter how hard you try to deny it.

to ten year olds, it's the 10 year olds! And it isn't the governments that make billions off of illegal drug, weapons, and human trafficking..it's the buyers! Whatever you do, do not hold the top of the food chain responsible. After all, it's just business. But by all means throw all the little people in jail! Every time a person gets sentenced to jail, the market goes up! Why ship jobs oversees, when you can use slave labor at home.

Neither does any other repuke who thinks the war on drugs is justified. You fools don't even realize.. it is our government who benefits the most from the war. Do you actually think they outlaw certain drugs because they're "bad" for you? :rofl:

whiskey

who grow their own. No contribution to the violence in any way, shape, or form. Be careful of blanket statements - they just make you look like an idiot.

I've long been a critic of the "man of the people"...considering he sits in a big studio in NYC and for years was a shill for the corporate world...his beloved Wall Street. Now from being a corporate toad he's turned into a "populist"? He's the one "keeping them honest?" Yeah...sure...and whose keeping him honest???

Lou's been playing the "populist" card to try to distance himself from the failed economics that he and others on his beloved Wall Street knew were ruining the country. He sure dropped that "Corporate Corruption" scoreboard, hasn't he. Instead, he's helped create wedge issues and sideshows that, fortunately, haven't had much impact on the general public...other than incite the racists and xenophobes. It deflects the attention from the corporations that profit from not just the cheap foreign labor (best kept foreign) but also the efforts to "protect" the borders. Yep, he's playing both sides of the "fence"...or so that's how he likes to portray it.

Lou speaks for the "common" pharmacutical, the common defense contractor, the "common" corporate farms and factories...and many fall for the ruse.

You've got it exactly right.

Very consistent.

Don

I figure most people just move along around here...or I'm on a ton of "ignore" lists. I appreciate all you posts as well...it's always good to see what you have to offer and your perspective.

Cheers...

:toast:

I don't have cable/satellite TV, so the only things I know about Lou Dobbs come from DU posts, and other commentary on the intertubes...



Well-put! To a non-Lou Dobbs watcher like me, it makes perfect sense. The most sense I've seen to date. Thank you!

Thank you again,
sw

Mexico looks like Colombia did in the early 1980s

And here is the kicker... that violence is going to El Norte too

As a vet of that damn war the best solution is LEGALIZATION and REGULATION


What is more, most of these drugs have been around humans for thousands of years (though not in the current processed forms)

But he will get a clue... when we start having those high powered shootouts in the US... especially in upper class neighborhoods

It's physically possible to do that. Not bloody likely. But physically possible none the less.

of the rise of organized crime, police corruption, violence, drug addiction, bankruptcy, death by overdosing, prison overcrowding and the immoral rise of the prison industry which profit from the imprisonment of the American People thereby disenfranchising the people from their government.

In short the Orwellian "War Against Drugs" is an asinine, shortsighted, un-winnable, foolish policy that will ultimately threaten our national security as it inevitably destroys the American People's right to privacy and weakens the government by eliminating the best and brightest from participation.

I believe the "War Against Drugs" is primarily a corporate government construct created to ensure corporate dominance over the people.

Non-violent drug addiction should be a medical and or educational issue, not a criminal one.

I also see no logical reason for Marijuana use or Hemp to be illegal.

The CIA has involved itself in drug trafficking from its very beginnings -- by the early 50s it slid right into the China opium trade that the Brits had established -- due to its effectiveness in funding The Empire -- in the previous century. It was a corporate takeover; the British Empire was weak and overstretched, the U.S. MIC had lots of ready cash, thanks to the fantastic profits garnered from WWII.

The elites of the MIC profit mightily from illegal drug trafficking, it rates right up there with weapons sales.

sw