H. A. Goodman: Legalizing Marijuana Should Be a Top National Security Objective H. A. Goodman - The Huffington Post
go to original July 14, 2014

The White House 2011 National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy highlights the border as a major security issue. As stated in the report:

    "Illicit trafficking across the Southwest border continues to be a chronic threat to our Nation and one of the top homeland security priorities for the United States.

    Mexico is the primary foreign source of marijuana...

    Strategic Goal: Substantially Reduce the flow of illicit drugs, drug proceeds, and associated instruments of violence across the Southwest border."

First, just the simple recreational use in states like Colorado, Oregon, and Washington is estimated to cut the profits of drug traffickers by 30 percent. Those states alone have done more than all our efforts in the drug war. We've sold Mexico $1.3 billion worth of weaponry to fight cartels, but the violence (kidnapping, torture, assassinations, as well as Mexican police working with the cartels) and drugs have increased over the years. In 2012, data shows that there was one marijuana arrest every 48 seconds in the U.S. Since 1971, the U.S. has spent over $1 trillion on the drug war, in addition to imprisoning half of the 2.3 million inmates in prisons for drug related charges. This war on drugs that come primarily from the border (which includes marijuana) has helped give us the largest prison population in the world. Most alarming is that in the past six years, over 50,000 Mexicans have died because of drug violence.

Any serious attempt at fixing our border with Mexico must start with federal legalization of marijuana.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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