LULACC Calls Out Calderon on Prop 19

By Ron Crumpton

On Friday, the United Latin American Citizens of California (LULACC) endorsed Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010.

"The current prohibition laws are not working for Latinos, nor for society as a whole,” said state director Argentina Davila-Luevano. "Far too many of our brothers and sisters are getting caught in the cross-fire of gang wars here in California and the cartel wars south of our border. It's time to end prohibition, put violent, organized criminals out of business and bring marijuana under the control of the law,” she added.

This announcement came just one day after the release of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s interview in the L.A. Times, where the Mexican leader said that it is his belief that loosening American drug laws would cause "serious consequences for American and Mexican society."

This timely endorsement of the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, should tell the Mexican president that the Latin community has a better grasp of reality than one of its most prominent leaders.

Apparently they recognize the fact that members of their community are targeted by law enforcement, and that when arrested they serve not only more jail time, but are also jailed more often than other offenders.

Perhaps they realize that the prohibition of marijuana is a magnate for violence in Latin America, and that by trying to tighten the grip on drug cartels, you only increase that violence. Instead they believe that eliminating the need for illegally grown marijuana, would be a deathblow to many of the drug cartels.

Maybe they are able to understand that, with the continued presence of prohibition in the Americas, their people are suffering from all the ills associated with illegal production without receiving any of the benefits from legal production. They would rather see marijuana as a viable crop, which can produce jobs throughout the Americas, than to continue to have the violence and oppression that the drug cartels inflict on their people.

Maybe this is an announcement to all of the governments of the world. That another voice is telling its leaders that people from all walks of life and all nationalities are wise to the irresponsible and spurious lies that they have spread throughout the world for the last 80 years.

It is also a symbol to all of the people who believe that prohibition is wrong!

It shows that there are always people out there who believe as you do, and if these organizations continue to show their support, and if everyone of you use your voice to spread the word to others then someday soon these individual voices  will become something much more powerful; a single voice.


Note: this was originally posted as LULAC, but it is actually LULACC. The term United Latin American Citizens of California was correct.

Calderon’s Argument Against Marijuana is Based on Fallacy

By Ron Crumpton

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico has criticized the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 as an encouragement to smoke marijuana and said that it would only compound the efforts to control drug violence in Mexico.

He went as far as to condemn the medical marijuana community as being a sham, and to state that he was disappointed in the federal government’s refusal to openly oppose proposition 19.

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico

"Drugs kill in production. Drugs kill in distribution, as is the case in the violence in Mexico, and drugs kill in consumption," Calderon said. It is his belief that loosening American drug laws would cause "serious consequences for American and Mexican society."

It is good to see that the stupidity of the prohibitionists is not only limited to those serving in the U.S. government. Apparently, their brethren south of the border are just as ignorant and uninformed as they are.

Anyone capable of rational thought can tell you that if you want to end the violence in the war against marijuana, the quickest and easiest way would be to eliminate the reason for the violence. The reason for the violence is prohibition, not the common marijuana smoker.

Legal marijuana will do that in California. If Prop 19 passes, it will eliminate the need for an illegitimate source of marijuana.

With the rest of the country still suffering from prohibition, there will still be illegal marijuana crossing the border from Mexico and into California, but that amount will drop with a legal and safe market for marijuana.

Actually, the end of prohibition in the United States would allow Mexico to end their prohibition and with a legal market in both countries the need for the illegal trade would end, but the Mexican farmer, who is desperate for a viable cash crop, would be able to find a place in that market as a legal producer of not only marijuana, but it would also allow them to produce industrial hemp that could be sold for use in American factories.

The president’s insinuation that marijuana kills in the production, distribution and consumption is completely erroneous. The only deaths in marijuana are caused by its prohibition and the way the government enforces that prohibition. No one has ever died from the consumption of marijuana, the other dangers associated with the production and distribution would cease to exist with a legal market.

His denial of marijuana as a medicine, in the face of overwhelming evidence, only goes to show that he does not have the mentality needed to lead his people during this crisis. It shows that he does not have the right plan to solve his countries problem and his ignorance of the truth and inability to formulate and effective solution, leads one to ask if he has the intelligence to lead his people during this crisis.

If you first base the cause of a problem on a fallacy, it all but eliminates your ability to find a credible solution to the problem.

In his interview with The Los Angeles Times, President Calderon said, "I think they (Americans) have very little moral authority to condemn a Mexican farmer who for hunger is planting marijuana to sustain the insatiable North American market for drugs.”

Well, President Calderon, Where do you get the moral authority to condemn Americans for creating a market for what is one of the most useful substances on the planet. The blame for this falls at your feet and the feet of all leaders, of all countries who continue to breed hate based on lies and misrepresentations. 

When leaders do not have the courage, intelligence or wisdom to see the real enemy, their people will suffer from the violence and depravity that they continue to propagate.