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Title: U.S. to blame for much of Mexico violence - Clinton
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URL Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN25429486
Published: Mar 25, 2009
Author: Arshad Mohammed
Post Date: 2009-03-25 20:30:04 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 331
Comments: 18
By Arshad Mohammed MEXICO CITY, March 25 (Reuters) - An "insatiable" appetite in the United States for illegal drugs is to blame for much of the violence ripping through Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. Clinton acknowledged the U.S. role in Mexico's vicious drug war as she arrived in Mexico for a two-day visit where she discussed U.S. plans to ramp up security on the border with President Felipe Calderon. A surge in drug gang killings to 6,300 last year and fears the violence could seep over the border has put Mexico's drug war high on President Barack Obama's agenda, after years of Mexico feeling that Washington was neglecting a joint problem. "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of police officers, soldiers and civilians," Clinton told reporters during her flight to Mexico City. "I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility." Clinton said the Obama administration strongly backed Mexico in its fight with the drug cartels and vowed the United States would try to speed up the transfer of drug-fighting equipment promised under a 2007 agreement. "We will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you ... Our relationship is far greater than any threat," Clinton said at a news conference in Mexico City. Crushing the drug cartels, who arm themselves with smuggled U.S. weapons and leave slain rivals, sometimes beheaded, in public streets, has become the biggest test of Calderon's presidency as the bloodshed rattles investors and tourists. Washington plans to ramp up border security with a $184 million program to add 360 security agents to border posts and step up searches for smuggled drugs, guns and cash. The Obama administration will spend $725 million to modernize border crossings and provide about $80 million to help Mexico purchase Black Hawk helicopters, Clinton said. It was unclear whether this would be new money from the United States or whether the Obama administration had already requested the funds from Congress. In Washington, Senator Joseph Lieberman said Obama's plans were not enough and he would seek $385 million more from Congress to pay for 1,600 more Customs and Border Patrol agents and bolster law enforcement centers in border areas. "The danger here is clear and present. It threatens to get worse," Lieberman said. CHALLENGES Clinton will use her visit to address a trucking dispute with Mexico and long-running trade and immigration issues. She said the trading partners were making headway on a spat which saw Mexico slam high tariffs on an estimated $2.4 billion worth of U.S. goods after the U.S. Congress ended a pilot program to let Mexican trucks operate in the United States. "On the trucking dispute, we are working to try to resolve it. We are making progress," she said, adding that she expects Congress will be receptive to the administration's ideas. Clinton, whose includes a stop in the northern business city of Monterrey on Thursday, said the thorny issues on the table did not mean that U.S.-Mexico relations were in trouble. "I don't see it that way," she said. "I think that we have some specific challenges ... but every relationship has challenges in it." Mexico has felt slighted by a delay in the arrival of drug-fighting equipment pledged by former President George W. Bush, as U.S. officials have sought assurances that the aid would not end up in the hands of corrupt officials or police. The U.S. Congress this month trimmed the amount of drug aid money it will set aside this fiscal year to $300 million from $400 million last year, under a pledge of $1.4 billion to Mexico and Central America over three years. Since taking office in Dec. 2006, Calderon has spent more than $6.4 billion on his drug war and sent 45,000 troops and federal police to trouble spots around the country. Mexico has repeatedly said, however, that its efforts will come to nothing if the United States does not clamp down on the smuggling of U.S. guns used in 90 percent of drug crimes south of the border. Clinton described the violence Mexico is grappling with as "horrendous" and said cartels were alarmingly well equipped. "It's not only guns. It's night vision goggles. It's body armor. These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials," she said. "When you go into a gun fight, where you are trying to round up bad guys and they have ... military style equipment that is much better than yours, you start out at a disadvantage." (Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Kieran Murray)
Poster Comment: But Hillary, drugs are illegal in this nation. So is gun smuggling. Do we need a new round of legislation making this conduct MORE illegal? I suppose all we can do is stop selling guns to EVERYONE so the Mexican drug cartels stay safer.
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#13. To: All (#0)
By Bill Myers Examiner Staff Writer 3/26/09 The federal government is giving crack and powder cocaine, morphine, and other hard-core drugs to taxpayer-funded researchers for testing on addicts, The Examiner has learned. For decades, the government has authorized, funded and lobbied for studies in which otherwise illegal drugs were given to addicts in cities such as Washington, Bethesda, Baltimore, New York, Minneapolis and San Antonio. The studies continue today and have an array of aims, from documenting the ways cocaine warps the brain to the intensity of pain from morphine withdrawal. Government records obtained by The Examiner show that the researchers gave test subjects: Most government officials are not aware of the experiments, even though they have been going on since at least the 1970s. But at least one former cabinet member found out about them and wants them stopped. In July 2008, Walters wrote a letter to Michael O. Leavitt, then secretary of health and human services. In that letter, obtained by The Examiner, Walters said that finding treatments for addictions was a “compelling” goal. “But what are their proper limits?” Walters wrote. He still hasn’t gotten a response. “Most people see the things that people will do to themselves when they’re addicted — what they’ll do to themselves, to their families, to their loved ones,” Walters told The Examiner. “I think that when you bring someone in and say, ‘Well, they’re not seeking treatment yet and therefore it’s OK to use them as an experimental subject’ — that’s not the understanding that the current science gives us about this disease.” The subjects of the tests signed consent forms before engaging in the studies and were paid. Most of the studies have been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a government agency based in Washington that is part of the National Institutes of Health. Officials there declined to be interviewed for this story and have not responded to requests for documents relating to the studies. Records show the studies date back to at least 1979. “NIDA issues grants to researchers all over the country and even many parts of the world,” spokeswoman Stephanie Older wrote in an e- mail. “Although all ... grantees must follow strict human subjects research guidelines, they do conduct their own independent research.” Critics such as Walters worry that scientists are victimizing people who can’t say no. Drug addiction is a powerful biochemical force. Studies have shown cocaine, for instance, can warp the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which governs a person’s reasoning and judgment. “What the critics seem to be implying is that because there’s addiction, there’s coercion,” said Kathleen Neill, a bioethicist with Georgetown University Medical Center. “This has brought up all kinds of ethical concerns, but that’s not to say there isn’t an answer to them.” Former drug addict Jesse Washington knows what his answer would be. Next month, he’ll have been clean and sober for 20 years. He still remembers acutely what it was like to wait eagerly for new kinds of cocaine, heroin and mescaline the way some collectors wait for “new cars off the line.” “I was always trying to find a safe way to do it. There’s not,” said Washington, who now counsels addicts at Samaritan Inns, a D.C. halfway house. “But [a study] would have given me an opportunity where I could have talked myself into it and said, ‘These people are trying to help me out. Maybe we can make it [drug abuse] work this time.’ ” Researchers interviewed by The Examiner say that their NIDA-funded work on drug addicts has yielded powerful insights into the disease. “Sometime in the fall we’re going to begin a clinical trial on a cocaine vaccine,” said Dr. Herbert Kleber, a Columbia University researcher. “It’s a fascinating kind of research.” Among the findings from clinical trials, for instance, were brain images taken by Johns Hopkins researchers that showed what cocaine can do to the brain. That’s led to new worlds of understanding on addiction, experts say. “The question is whether the results justify using these individuals as disposable subjects,” Walters said. Dr. Suena Massey is a professor of psychiatry at George Washington University who specializes in treating addiction. She says that research involving vulnerable people — such as the mentally ill or drug addicts — always challenges a scientist to find the ethical way of studying serious problems. “There’s definitely the potential of an ethical dilemma with doing a study that appeals to a vulnerability such as addiction,” Massey said. “Having said that, I think the capacity for informed consent can and should be made on a case-by-case basis.” Ex-drug czar Walters says he’s willing to be convinced. “I’m trying to listen to the best science possible. But I haven’t gotten an answer,” he said. “It’s all the bureaucracy protecting itself here on the grounds that the scientists know best. It’s not a trivial matter.” According to NIDA’s Web site, researchers in New York still are looking for “volunteers.”
Ocrack !
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Federal programs gave addicts street drugs
John Walters, drug czar during both terms of George W. Bush’s administration, said he learned about the studies near the end of Bush’s term. “It’s not only questionable ethically, but probably — given the science — it may not be able to be defended at all,” Walters told The Examiner recently. 
Government Drug Experiments
#14. To: Jethro Tull (#13)
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