Lawmakers Ran for the Door as Anti-Drug Crusader Proposed Drug Testing

Posted by Alex in Crime & Law, Politics on December 29, 2008 at 2:23 pm


The Los Angeles Times has been running a series of articles about Mexico’s drug cartels and the government’s (so far ineffective) war against drugs.

Past articles have included the gruesome tale of drug boss dissolving the bodies of his enemies in vats of lye and the tale of a legendary kingpin who picks up the tab of everyone dining at the restaurant he happens to eat in.

In the latest article of the series, Tracy Wilkinson writes about Yudit del Rincon, an anti-drug crusader and state legislator from Sinaloa, who had a brilliant idea:

Yudit del Rincon, a 44-year-old lawmaker, went before the state legislature this year with a proposition: Let’s require lawmakers to take drug tests to prove they are clean.

Her colleagues greeted the idea with applause. Then she sprang a surprise on them: Two lab technicians waited in the audience to administer drug tests to every state lawmaker. We should set the example, she said.

They nearly trampled one another in the stampede to the door, Del Rincon recalled.

Link

(Photo: Don Bartletti/LA Times)


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8 comments to "Lawmakers Ran for the Door as Anti-Drug Crusader Proposed Drug Testing"

  1. AC
    December 29th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    That expert from the story reminded me of the book The Puppet Masters.

  2. Yomerito
    December 29th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    Im impressed that a site like neatorama speaks about the "narcotrafico". Here in México is something very powerfull, feared, is like a huge enterprise that grows stronger by the day and if someone goes after it, the next day he's dead. Young ones think of it as if it was something great and try to be like that, they don't see the damage that they make to their country. The "narcotrafico" is the war that México has fought for years and its getting worse every day. The violence, the kidnaps, the corruption and the lack of respect for the human life.

    Great post Alex =)

  3. liphttam1
    December 29th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

    Wow, that sounds horrible yomerito.

  4. HollywoodBob
    December 29th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    @Yomerito:
    All the more reason to legalize drugs and get them off the black market. The drug cartels will go away when there's no money to be made.

  5. Gorf
    December 29th, 2008 at 8:00 pm

    @HollywoodBob:
    Yeah, right. They will vanish and drug lords will become bakers or liquor store clerks. Even if I go for some sort of legalisation, it's too simplistic to suppose that a business so powerful will just go away. Either they will become very honest and legal drug vendors, or they will drive honest and legal drug vendors (if there could be such a thing) out of business.

  6. Justin
    December 29th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

    What a horrible situation and its amazing that something like this can go on just south of us. And hollywoodbob, the solution is not to encourage people to use drugs that these cartels traffic, but to get people away from the drugs and dry up their bank accounts.

    If you legalize drugs and simply let "the government" of Mexico traffic them to the US, do you honestly think the Mexican drug lords will simply say OK well I guess we'll pack up and become mailmen. Instead, you will have the exact same situation, but now they will be on the side of the law.

    The mafia in the US did not disappear once prohibition was repealed. They just found new ways to make money.

  7. NeonCat
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    @ Justin

    Yes, let's just get people to stop using drugs. How, how brilliant! If only someone had told governments that years ago, the whole war on (some) drugs could have been won by now.

    @ Justin and Gorf

    I'm unaware of the last time there was a war over who got to distribute Bud Light in the supermarkets. HollywoodBob is right, take away the obscenely high profits and you will get truly legitimate businessmen.

  8. Thebes
    January 1st, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    If there were no market for illegal drugs, then this violence wouldn't be happening.

    How to get rid of the market for ILLEGAL drugs? Legalize them! If Mexican drug lords had to compete against legal US pot growers and coke refiners, their profits would collapse. Its the massive money from the black market that fuels this violence.


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