The money quote is snuggled down in the middle of this NYT story about the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona, which straddles the U.S./Mexico border and is suffering through a double invasion—cartels from the south and feds from the north.

The cartels move a lot of pot through the Tohono O’odham, but only small amounts of cocaine, meth, and heroin. Elizabeth Kempshall, special agent in charge of the DEA in Arizona, explains why, and why we must burn energy and resources stopping it:

“The cartels use the profit from marijuana to purchase cocaine in Colombia and Peru and the ingredients for meth and heroin from other regions,” said Elizabeth W. Kempshall, special agent in charge of the Arizona office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “So marijuana is the catalyst for the rest of the drug trade.”

So the best way to fight the drug trade as a whole is to legalize pot. Right?

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....

5 replies on “The DEA Argues for Legalization”

  3. “The cartels use the profit from marijuana to purchase cocaine in Colombia and Peru and the ingredients for meth and heroin from other regions”

    Is she saying that the international drug cartels are insufficiently capitalized to just buy the damn cocaine, or is she saying that cocaine is a loss leader for the real money-maker, marijuana. Either way, she is setting the nonsense filter way to low in her D.A.R.E drivel.

  4. So the international drug cartels couldn’t function without selling pot? Please, they’ll find another way, like selling more women, not that they don’t already do that.

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