This Is Mexico's Most Ruthles Drug Lord

In this wanted poster, the U.S. announces a rare $10 million reward for help finding El Mencho, a ruthless cartel boss and billionaire. Courtesy of the DEA

USA Today/Louisville Courier Journal: A ruthless Mexican drug lord’s empire is devastating families with its grip on small-town USA

With unparalleled speed, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG, has set up shop in cities, towns and unsuspecting communities across America.

Somewhere deep in Mexico's remote wilderness, the world’s most dangerous and wanted drug lord is hiding. If someone you love dies from an overdose tonight, he may very well be to blame.

He's called "El Mencho."

And though few Americans know his name, authorities promise they soon will.

Rubén "Nemesio" Oseguera Cervantes is the leader of Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, better known as CJNG. With a $10 million reward on his head, he’s on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Most Wanted list.

El Mencho’s powerful international syndicate is flooding the U.S. with thousands of kilos of methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl every year — despite being targeted repeatedly by undercover stings, busts and lengthy investigations.

The unending stream of narcotics has contributed to this country’s unprecedented addiction crisis, devastating families and killing more than 300,000 people since 2013.

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WNU Editor: The U.S. death toll from drugs is truly staggering.

Inside The U.S. Coast Guard's War On Drugs (Video)

WNU Editor: This "war" is never going to stop.

U.N.: The Global Fight Against Narcotics Has Suffered Serious Setbacks

Today marks the start of the High-Level segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) 57th session at the UN headquarters in Vienna. Photo: UNODC

U.N. Sees Serious Setbacks In Anti-Drugs Fight -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The global fight against narcotics has suffered serious setbacks, including record opium cultivation in Afghanistan and a surge of trafficking-related violence in Central America, the U.N. anti-drugs chief said on Thursday.

Yury Fedotov also noted some successes, such as a shrinking cocaine market, at the start of a two-day meeting that will review implementation of a 2009 plan of action to combat the drugs problem before a special session of the U.N. General Assembly in 2016, amid a heated debate on the merits of drugs liberalization.

Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said reductions in the supply and demand for some drugs in one part of the world had been partly offset by increases elsewhere.

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Update: UN review of global drug problem kicks off with calls for more effective, humane action -- UN News Centre

My Comment: This is a start .... the UN is recognizing the simple fact that they are not winning this war.

U.N. Development Chief: The War On Drugs Has Failed

U.N. Development Chief Flags Failings Of 'War On Drugs' -- New York Times/Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - There is increasing evidence that the war on drugs has failed, with criminalization often creating more problems than it solves, said Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Program.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's presentation of the UNDP's 2013 Human Development Report, Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister, said Latin American leaders should be encouraged to develop different policies to tackle the drug scourge.

"I've been a health minister in my past and there's no doubt that the health position would be to treat the issue of drugs as primarily a health and social issue rather than a criminalized issue," Clark told Reuters in an interview.

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Update: War on drugs: What is it good for? -- David Case, Global Post

My Comment: The alternatives are not appealing either. Afghanistan and Pakistan are two countries that do not enforce drug laws .... and what has been the end result are millions of addicts that are producing a social and health disaster that is unimaginable.

U.S. Navy To Pull Out Of The War On Drugs

Photo: U.S. Coast Guardsmen unload 3,500 pounds of cocaine in Miami March 16, 2012. The crew seized the cocaine from a 35-foot vessel in the Caribbean Sea as part of Operation Martillo. US Coast Guard Photo

Budget Cuts Could Pull Navy Out Of The War On Drugs -- USNI

U.S. Navy frigates will stop patrolling for drug runners by April because of forced sequestration budget cuts, a Navy spokesman told USNI News on Monday.

On Saturday, U.S. 4th Fleet was informed by Navy leadership it would suspend deployments of two ships—part of the Joint Interagency Task Force South’s Operation Martillo—by April because of the 1 March sequestration cuts, said the 4th Fleet’s Cmdr. Cory Barker.

“The cancellation and deferment of ship deployments to 4th Fleet is unfortunate,” Barker said. “We will remain hopeful that Congress will act so we can recover and continue those missions.”

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My Comment: These are the first cuts .... expect more in the months and years to come.

Should U.S. Troops Become Involved In The War On Drugs?

A member of Joint Task Force Bravo refueling a Black Hawk in Honduras. Tomas Munita for The New York Times

Should U.S. Troops Fight The War On Drugs? -- New York Times

The expanded role of the U.S. Army’s special operations forces throughout the world now includes a deployment to Honduras, where it is helping fight drug smuggling. Should the military be involved in the war on drugs? Does military involvement in poor, weakly governed countries destablize them?

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My Comment: A good number of opinions and analysis are in this New York Times report. What's my take on the war on drugs .... we are treating the symptoms but not the disease, and the disease is America's insatiable appetite for narcotics.

Sir Richard Branson: We Have Lost The War On Drugs

Richard Branson says billions of pounds spent in a war against drugs have been unsuccessful. He says its time to admit defeat and change tact

It’s Time To End The Failed War On Drugs -- Sir Richard Branson, The Telegraph

Treating addicts as criminals has done absolutely nothing to address this crisis, writes Richard Branson.

Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.

Too many of our leaders worldwide are ignoring policy reforms that could rapidly reduce violence and organized crime, cut down on theft, improve public health and reduce the use of illicit drugs. They are failing to act because the reforms that are needed centre on decriminalizing drug use and treating it as a health problem. They are scared to take a stand that might seem “soft”.

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Update #1: Sir Richard Branson Calls For End To 'War On Drugs' -- The Telegraph
Update #2: ‘The fight has failed globally’: Richard Branson calls drugs to be decriminalised to free up police time -- Daily Mail

My Comment: The reason why the US decided at the turn of the last century to make opiates and other drugs illegal stemmed from the consequences of having these drugs freely available and without legal restrictions. In short .... available narcotics produced a social and medical nightmare that forced American policy makers at the time to put a stop to it. And while everyone knew that enforcement would create problems of their own .... it was decided that this was a far more preferable policy than the alternative of having drugs freely available.

A case study on what drugs can do to a society is Afghanistan. Opium and it's byproduct heroin is available everywhere .... but with a million plus addicts and the social/medical/economic problems that are associated with this group .... strict law enforcement and the headaches that it causes is probably far more preferable than the alternative which is minimum enforcement and no penalties.

Global War On Drugs A Failure: A News Roundup

Global War On Drugs A Failure, High-Level Panel Says -- Yahoo News/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A high-level international commission declared the global "war on drugs" a failure and urged nations to consider legalizing cannabis and other drugs to undermine organized crime and protect their citizens' health.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy called for a new approach to reducing drug abuse to replace the current strategy of strictly criminalizing drugs and incarcerating drug users while battling criminal cartels that control the drug trade.

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More News On The Global War on Drugs

Global war on drugs 'a failure' -- Al Jazeera
War on drugs has failed and caused 'devastating consequences for societies worldwide' claims global narcotics watchdog -- Daily Mail
Major Panel: Drug War Failed; Legalize Marijuana -- ABC News
'Global War On Drugs Has Failed,' Former World Leaders Say -- NPR
Report: 'The global war on drugs has failed' -- USA Today
Report: 'Global War On Drugs Has Failed' -- NPR/AP
War on drugs has 'failed', says global drug policy group -- BBC (Video)
Report: Global War On Drugs Fails -- NPR (Audio)
War on drugs not working, says global commission -- The Guardian
High-profile panel urges non-criminal approach to world drug policy -- L.A. Times
Panel Calls War on Drugs a Failure -- Wall Street Journal
Report calls war on drugs a failure -- UPI
Decriminalizing marijuana worth trying: panel -- AFP
Is Africa losing the war on drugs? -- BBC

Obama On Drugs -- Should Reformers Dare To Hope?

Marijuana Field (Photo from Joel Mackey)

From Reason.com:

Last week voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot initiative that eliminates criminal penalties for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana, replacing them with a $100 civil fine. Michigan, meanwhile, became the 13th state to allow the medical use of cannabis.

As Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project noted, the percentage of voters approving those initiatives (65 and 63, respectively) exceeded Barack Obama's share of the vote in each state. Furthermore, the results in Massachusetts and Michigan seem to reflect national opinion. For years polls have indicated that a large majority of Americans think that people should not go to jail for smoking pot and that patients who can benefit from marijuana should be able to obtain it legally.

Yet President-elect Barack Obama has retreated from his support for marijuana decriminalization, and his position on medical marijuana remains ambiguous. His reticence on these issues suggests he may disappoint those who hope the Obama administration will move drug policy in a less punitive, more tolerant direction.

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My Comment: Mexico, Colombia, and in many American homes .... the war on drugs is an everyday event. A new policy must be conceptualized and implemented .... because this is a war that we are losing. If President Obama cannot formulate a new policy .... no one in the foreseeable future can.

One Success Story On The War Against Heroin

Keeping it up: To grow other crops, people need aid for a dam and irrigation, agrees tribal elder Mohammad Amin. Mark Sappenfield/The Christian science Monitor

Fragile Success Against Afghanistan's Opium Economy -- Christian Science Monitor

Poppy cultivation fell by about 20 percent, after two years of record harvests.

Ghani Khel, Afghanistan - A year ago, the province that surrounds this dusty town of onion farmers was Afghanistan's No. 2 producer of opium. Today, Nangarhar has eradicated opium entirely.

It is the most dramatic reversal in a year offering the first hints of progress against opium, with harvests declining nationwide.

Yet in the chalk-white fields above Ghani Khel, tribal elder Pat Zirak Mohammad predicts that Nangarhar's opium ban will not last. To grow anything other than poppy, his people need a dam to harness water from seasonal floods. But he is skeptical that the government will deliver. "If that doesn't happen, our people will again grow poppy," he says.

Through its bold attempts to ban poppy in recent years, Nangarhar has become the preeminent case study on how to wean Afghanistan from its poppy crop. Mr. Mohammad's words point to the difficulty of making success last.

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My Comment: For the present .... there is at least some hope in one part of Afghanistan.

Casualties In Afghanistan's War On Drugs

Afghanistan Drug Production

Afghan Anti-Drugs Judge Is Killed -- BBC News

The leading anti-drugs judge in Afghanistan has been killed.

Judge Alim Hanif, 65 who headed the Central Narcotics Tribunal Appeals Court, was shot on his way to work in and died in a Kabul hospital.

Representatives of the court paid their respects, saying he was deeply committed to tackling the country's drugs problems.

The attack on a leading judge has sent shockwaves through the judiciary in Afghanistan.

Mr Hanif's colleagues said he was a man of integrity, who was deeply committed to his job.

He took a tough stance on drug trafficking and was not frightened to hand out stiff sentences.

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My Comment: This judge was obviously successful in his job. His murder sets back Afghanistan's war on drugs by a few years.