I have noticed more and more that Weed is getting more attention in the news, becoming more and more ‘mainstream.’   This is good to see on the telly, we as a society are starting to look at the issues after 70 years of illegalization (1937).

I saw the CNBC documentary “Inside America’s Pot Industry,” which was informative about the 2008 scene when George Bush still had much more federal pressure put on growers and Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. Now with Eric Holder as Attorney General in the Obama Administration resources are being used properly to fight the drug war.

The most profitable cash crop, watch part one of the CNBC documtary ‘Marijuana Inc., Inside America’s Pot Industry’:

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Another program on TV is National Geographics’s Explorer episode of MARIJUANA NATION

Lisa Ling’s View on the War on Drugs

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I just watched NARCO STATE on the National Geographic channel with Lisa Ling reporting.

• 10,000 pounds per day caught at the boarder.
• this number could just be 10% of all that is flowing across
• 50% of drugs flowing across the boarder is Marijuana, not hard narcotics–more of a reason to legalize weed and get the money out of the hands of drug cartels.  Heroin and Cocaine will still be there but you are cutting down 50% of the volume.

What they don’t say is that the 10,000 lbs per day is SCHWAG weed, its low quality, smashed down for smuggling, dirt weed.  In markets like California’s medical marijuana market this type of weed disappears.

Here is the trailer to the Lisa Ling’s National Geographic Explorer episode ‘NARCO STATE’, explaining how many people are kidnapped in the US because of the illegalization of marijuana in America.

Now in California they say that there is a problem with Drug Cartels growing weed in public land, that problem would be solved if you allowed more people (Americans) to grow it legally. Basically the argument here is that the more illegalization, the more opportunity the drug cartels have to make money and continue a wave of violence to make that money.

Here are some FACTS published on the Explorer website.

According to the Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican and Colombian Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO’s) amass some $18 to $39 billion in wholesale drug profits annually. It is their belief that this money is then “bulk” smuggled outside of the United States via the Mexican border.

• According to the U.S. State Department, 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the U.S. passes through Mexico on its way to the U.S.,  65 percent of which crosses the U.S.- Mexico border.
• Mexican marijuana remains the most widely available marijuana in the U.S. market.
• There are some six major Mexican drug cartels that control the majority of illicit drug trafficking: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Beltran Leyva Cartel, Los Zetas and La Familia.
• Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the alleged head of the Sinaloa Cartel and #701 on Forbes’s list of the world’s billionaires, got his start in the drug trade as an air and logistics expert, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
• According to University of San Diego’s Transborder Institute, there were 5,153 drug-related killings in Mexico in 2008.
• In the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where the border city of Juarez is located, there were 1,649 drug-related killings, 32 percent of the national total.
• As of July 3, 2009, there were an additional 3,054 drug-related deaths in Mexico, 896 of which happened in Chihuahua State.
• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the city of Phoenix, Arizona, is a regional and national distribution center for illicit drug trafficking due in part to its well-developed highway system.
• Phoenix ranks number two in the world in kidnapping, behind Mexico City.
• In 2008, there were 368 kidnappings in Phoenix. This is a jump from an annual average of around 250 from 2003 to 2006.
• Since December 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has mobilized 45,000 Mexican military troops to fight the drug traffickers.
• Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists to work. In 2007, it was ranked just second behind Iraq as the deadliest country in the world for journalists.

  Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/explorer/4092/Overview#tab-facts#ixzz0b4gPnoaq