Reason Writers Around Town: Radley Balko on Obama, Mexico, and the Drug War for The Daily Beast

The drug war and the violence it has spawned south of the border dominated the discussion of President Obama's visit to Mexico yesterday. Over at The Daily Beast, Radley Balko explains that while Obama deserves praise for ending the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics, his foreign drug policy leaves much to be desired. Obama is not only continuing the failed Latin American interdiction efforts of his predecessors, he wants to export those policies to Afghanistan.

Comments

[libertarian democrat]

Obama is not a thoughtful, nuanced thinker on drugs, but he plays one on TV.

[Anonymous]

Are the comments to that story for real?

bluehawaii

Both parties can't agree on anything, because one of them is focused entirely on obstruction. If Obama proposed legalizing marijuana, the traitor right would use it as a weapon to bludgeon him with.

I've seen more convincing trolling out of joe.

[BakedPenguin]

...at the now-infamous (at least on the Internet) town-hall meeting last month, where the president was asked whether he would consider legalizing marijuana to help the ailing economy.

Did the question asked refer to the economy? I thought it was a straight legalization question, and the economic angle was something Obama added.

Also - pot makes up 60% of drugs coming from Mexico? I had no idea the market for schwag was so big.

[BakedPenguin]

ha ha - Anonymous, the same guy you quoted also wrote:

Once the economy clears up, he'll have the political capital to address such things.

Once the economy clears up, someone else is going to be in the White House. Obama might as well do one thing right while he's there.

[brotherben]

BP, don't be such a downer man. The economy is already on the mend. Things are lookin up.

[P Brooks]

Yesterday morning, on Bloomberg, the "tease" for the Obama Headed South story was, "He will discuss the unregulated flow of weapons and drugs across the border."

WTF? "Unregulated flow"? Seriously?

Am I really supposed to give a shit about the entire RealNews infrastructure going down in flames?

[DipStick]

"WTF? "Unregulated flow"? Seriously?"

Yes. Obama said that 90% of the guns in Mexico come from the US. He said because of this, we will now be searching Americans entering Mexico.

This guy is teh evil.

[Spoonman]

Things that are illegal are unregulated! Shocking!

[Chuck]

Then there's Afghanistan. Obama's new plan for the country is not only foolish, it may well undermine U.S. national security. The Associated Press reported last month that a major focus of Obama's plan "will be modeled after the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's campaign against drug cartels in South America."

Fail.
More Fail.

Who said social science experiments aren't reproducible?

[R C Dean]

BP, don't be such a downer man. The economy is already on the mend. Things are lookin up.

brotherben, you need to familiarize yourself with the concept of "bear rallies".

[brotherben]

R C Dean, It's friday. My meds are workin better than usual. My glass is half full. and
America is on the road to recovery.

I will look into this bear rallies thingy. just for you.

[BakedPenguin]

brotherben, when the economy recovers, I think inflation is going to take off. You can't pull the shit Bush & Obama have without some serious consequences.

[crimethink]

Obama deserves praise for ending the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics

Did he actually do this, or is this more Obamatarian wishful thinking? (I remember Sullum applauding him for ending the raids a day before the DEA raided a dispensary that was behind on paying state sales tax)

[economist]

FDR supporters in 1936:

"BP, don't be such a downer man. The economy is already on the mend. Things are lookin up."

[economist]

I am very bitter today. I may have to start my heavy drinking early.

[the innominate one]

crimethink beat me to the question, but it still needs an answer