Every single assertion put forth in the quotes from principals in this story is easily refuted. This shit gets printed with no question -- obvious questions that should be asked. Looks to me like what leads to violence is the fact that the government's price-support program for marijuana keeps the value of this load at $40 million (actually probably more like $10 million, depends on whether you count the joints traded for beers) instead of $500,000 (about $2 per ounce instead of $40, which it would be without the risk factor of illegality).
From the Rapid City Journal today:
From the Rapid City Journal today:
CHICAGO — Authorities in Chicago on Thursday showed off eight tons of marijuana they found in a tractor-trailer, saying the drug seizure will help with efforts to combat gang violence in the nation's third-largest city.
"The competition between narcotics dealers for these markets is keen and it results in violence," said police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. "This is not the (violent) crime. This is the driver of the crime and when we make seizures like this, we can affect street level sales ... and it impacts on crime in the city."
Chicago has seen a dramatic increase in homicides this year — up about 50 percent so far when compared with the same period last year — and police blame much of the violence on the city's gangs.
Jack Riley, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office, said the marijuana was grown in Mexico and shipped to Chicago for street gangs to sell. He said gangs would have been hungry for the marijuana, which has an estimated street value of $40 million. "That leads to violence," he said before Thursday's media briefing.
1 comment:
The war on Drugs leads to violence. What happened to organized crime when prohibition was lifted? Legalize the stuff and put the gangsters out of business, that is the drug dealers and those who depend upon them, like the DEA.
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