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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Cuba: Drug Trafficking: Scourge of Modern Times
Lisandro Otero Periodico 26, Cuba
Wednesday 29 Mar 2006 From Lebanon to the Balkans, from Thailand to Palermo, from Hong Kong to Medellin, from Burma to Miami a new force has emerged in the world: the big international drug cartel. Its immense capacity to amass huge capital is proving that it can defy the power of constitutional States. Its cunning use of bribery to corrupt and buy judges and senators, magistrates and governors, generals and parliamentarians, as well as its ruthless use of violence can make everyone afraid of its indiscriminate cruelty and its capacity for retaliation. The drug barons' might is so immense that they can order the murder of those who are unwilling to cooperate with them, ruin the life of those who oppose their interests, and harm the reputation of those who dare block their way. On the other hand, they can also promote, sponsor, and establish those who open their doors to them. Drug power participates in elections and finances banks to launder illegal profits; it purchases television networks, magazines and newspapers; it uses respectable institutions as facades for its operations; it owns airlines, hotels, race tracks and casinos. It is a new 'State' operating within officially recognized States Never before, in modern times, had there been such a monopoly of authority, influence, and supremacy. None of the secret societies that history has ever seen was able to amass so much power. The Chinese Triad, the Neapolitan Camorra, the Sicilian Mafia, the Ku Klux Klan in the southern US states, the Italian Carbonarios, The Fenian Brotherhood in Ireland, and the Decembrist Movement in Russia were associations limited in space and time to very specific goals. None of them ever reached the scope, operational efficiency and supremacy of drug cartels. And it seems that governments do not have enough resources to efficiently combat their infinite underground ramifications. But this enormous establishment exists to supply drug to its major client worldwide: the US drug consumer. The majority of the world's drug addicts live in the United States. Notwithstanding, while manufacturers and drug mules are constantly being pursued, little is being done to dismantle the immense alkaloid distribution networks. It is well known that Florida and California, two of the largest states of the Union, are the world's major drug marketplaces and money-laundering centers. In New York, Chicago, and Detroit together, there are half a million cocaine consumers. Much has being said about cocaine, but marihuana, which is grown inside the United States, generates earnings amounting $20 billion annually, while 66 million Americans consume it regularly. Nevertheless, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has not reported burning any cannabis plantations. Many think that this scourge could decline if its use is legalized. Some countries like Holland have already done so and have actually seen the disappearance of the accompanying crime wave. The addicts who have become trapped by uncontrolled consumption are provided with a card that allows them to get a ration of drugs for personal use at pharmacies. The United Kingdom has also set out to legalize the use of marihuana. According to recently concluded research studies, marihuana is not harmful. On the contrary, it is said to produce an anesthetizing and relaxing effect on muscles. The liver can process it perfectly. Cannabis has no effect if it is taken in the form of pills, but it provides excellent results in the form of sprays and suppositories. Taken in these ways, it does not cause any nervous excitement as happens when it is smoked in cigarettes. The possibility that Cannabis can be used as a medical substitute is currently being studied. Drug trafficking has become a Great Satan, the number-one public enemy of the United States. However, little is being done to combat it within the country's borders. Meanwhile, the notion that the evil Latin American countries are corrupting virtuous US citizens continues to be widely spread.
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