Bill Caffrey    San Jose, California, United States    June 14, 2011

On the question of firearms, I'm afraid you are mistaken. In 2009, the American government said "90% of guns" used by the drug cartels came from American retail shops near the southern border. This was patently false, proven to be false and it continues to be false. A more realistic number is somewhere below 18%. The U.S. Central-Command and State Department both know that the majority of the automatic weapons (illegal to purchase new in the USA) come from Central America, remnants of old conflicts. Recently the American Bureau responbile for enforcing gun laws was found to have actually facilitated the smuggling of anywhere from 1,700 to 2,500 weapons into Mexico. The U.S. Congress is conducting hearings this week (June 13) on this matter. It isn't a question of "Did they really do that?" anymore, but "Why and Who" authorized this idiotic plan. The why is simple for some of us. President Obama's administration wants to curtail gun ownership as much as possible and this would help push legislation forward to ban certain types of guns.

As to Americans and their love of guns, remember we are a free people because of firearms. As British colonies we had guns for hunting and protection. When English abuses became common and the colonists protested, the British tried to seize them -- and the Revolutionary war started. Guns in the hands of citizens soliders (and assistance from France) won our independence. For many, the ownership of a firearm symbolizes that struggle -- where we went from being "The Crown's _subjects_" to free citizens and "equal" to those who govern us. Oh, yes, shooting as a sport is fun. Like Golf. If your ball or bullet doesn't land where you want it, it is your fault. It's like Golf in that it requires focus, skill and discipline.

Cheers,

malcolm kyle    new york, United States    June 07, 2011

Some simple facts: #1. A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs, such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.

#2. Due to Prohibition, the availability of mind-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered, that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.

#3. The massive majority of people who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.

#4. A small minority of people experience drug use as problematic.

#5. Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement and whole governments while invariably causing thousands of deaths.

#6. It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste hundreds of billions in a wasted attempt to keep them off our streets.

#7. Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the prohibited drugs have ever done.

#8. As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, tolerate it, or simply look the other way while others commit it, then you are an accessory to a very serious crime.

#9. America re-legalized certain drug use in 1933. The drug was alcohol, and the 21st amendment re-legalized its production, distribution and sale. Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result, and, very soon after, the American economy climbed out of that same prohibition engendered abyss into which it had previously fallen.

TLDR    Rockford, USA    June 07, 2011

Whoop-D-F**king-Doo...

Grammar.Nazi    Chicago, USA    June 07, 2011

"It cannot be stressed enough that the average American is a good and decent human being, who would have been known to do everything, move the government and corporate behemoths to prevent needless deaths in America and in far-away lands, whether in opposition to wars etc and more so, in neighboring Mexico where 30,000 are killed in a mere 24 months as a result of the conflicts, struggle and competition, vicious competition, to supply illegal drugs to meet the endless demands by Americans and yet, not a murmur of protests are heard in America about 30,000 lives cut short in their prime in Mexico to please Americans! "

This is the most hilariously inept run-on sentence I have seen in a long time. It reads as if it is purposefully designed to give English teachers a heart attack. The length of this article is impressive. However, the quality of the writing is not. You should emphasize quality over quantity. You need an English teacher to give these articles a once-over with a nice red pen.

Brandt Hardin    Clarksville, USA    June 07, 2011

The War on Drugs failed Billions of dollars ago! This money could have been used for outreach programs to clean up the bad end of drug abuse by providing free HIV testing, free rehab, and clean needles. Harmless drugs like marijuana could be legalized to help boost our damaged economy. Cannabis can provide hemp for countless natural recourses and the tax revenue from sales alone would pull every state in our country out of the red! Vote Teapot, PASS IT, and legalize it. Voice you opinion with the movement and check out my pro-cannabis art