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Drug Boat Strike

Then your Google fu is lacking.

I'll give you a free one - MJ accounts for over 60% of cartel revenue.

We don't grow it domestically.
From your link...

Past estimates (Pre-legalization)
Before widespread U.S. cannabis legalization, marijuana was considered a major source of income for Mexican drug trafficking organizations.
  • Early 2000s: A 2006 estimate by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggested that Mexican cartels generated over 60% of their revenue from U.S. marijuana sales.
  • Early 2010s: Later studies provided more conservative estimates.
    • A 2010 RAND Corporation study estimated that marijuana accounted for about 16% of cartel revenue.
    • A 2012 study from the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness and RAND estimated marijuana's share of drug export revenues to be between 20% and 30%.
Recent shift (Post-legalization)
Since 2015, the rise of the legal cannabis industry in the U.S. has caused a dramatic drop in the quality and profitability of cartel-produced marijuana.
  • Cartel adaptation: Drug cartels have shifted their focus to other, more profitable narcotics, such as fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine, to compensate for lost marijuana revenue.
  • Declining seizures: The amount of cannabis seized at the U.S.-Mexico border has fallen substantially. Cannabis seizures dropped by 21% between 2013 and 2014, the first year of recreational sales, and continued to decline over the following years.
  • Falling prices: The profitability of illegally trafficked Mexican marijuana has been diminished by competition from higher-quality legal and black-market U.S. cannabis.
Current status
Today, the percentage of overall cartel revenue derived from marijuana is likely very low, though difficult to quantify precisely. Extortion, kidnapping, sex trafficking, and other illicit goods, along with deadlier drugs, now provide a larger share of the cartels' income.
 
You should know better than to trust the AI answer. It's crowd sourcing clueless social media posts.

Marijuana was the second most comfiscated drug by weight from cartels in 2024.

Marijuana is still illegal to grow domestically and the DEA has aggressively enforced this.

It's true that Marijuana activity is decreasing in lieu of a much more lucrative drug called Fentanyl, but Marijuana remains a significant part of their business.

Virtually 100% of legally sold MJ in the US comes from an illicit supplier.
 
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However, drug deaths fell rapidly from the 1980s to mid 2000s. Once we declared it a waste of time / intrusive on people's rights in the mid 00s, drug ODs and demand has steadily risen.

As a card-carrying marijuana waiver holder, there were two drugs drilled into me to never try or your life is over: Crack and heroine. I had a NYC cop come to my school in 4th grade to show us what drugs looked like and some pictures of bloods with Glasgow smiles (and their daughters because you have to slit a random victim to get in).

My kids have no drug education at all beyond what we've talked about with them. It's no wonder people believe the internet hype that you can shoot some smack on a Saturday on occasion like it's an ice cream Sunday or something and not build dependency (or die).

Yet those DARE programs, just like other abstinence programs, did not work.



In fact, your statements about drug deaths going down in the 1980s and 1990s is false. Deaths per 100,000 people doubled during that time period.

 
You should know better than to trust the AI answer. It's crowd sourcing clueless social media posts.

Marijuana was the second most comfiscated drug by weight from cartels in 2024.

Marijuana is still illegal to grow domestically and the DEA has aggressively enforced this.

It's true that Marijuana activity is decreasing in lieu of a much more lucrative drug called Fentanyl, but Marijuana remains a significant part of their business.

Virtually 100% of legally sold MJ in the US comes from an illicit supplier.

Well, if you're comparing hay bales to pills, the fact that pills are greater by weight than hay bales tells you something.

Sketchy source...

In 2009, the 3.3 million pounds of cannabis seized...By 2020, illicit cannabis seizures dropped to 600,000 pounds

Arrests...
Of the 61,678 cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2024, 18,150 involved drugs. Of those, 18,029 cases involved drug trafficking; 2.6% of such cases involved marijuana (down 57.9% since fiscal year 2020).
 
there were two drugs drilled into me to never try or your life is over: Crack and heroine. I had a NYC cop come to my school in 4th grade to show us what drugs looked like and some pictures of bloods with Glasgow smiles (and their daughters because you have to slit a random victim to get in).
Pretty sure that cop was just making shit up...Also better to do crack with a heroine, not just some rando.
 
From the NYTimes gift article...

A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

The military repeatedly hit the vessel before it sank, the officials added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. The administration has claimed the boat was carrying drugs.

Rear Adm. James E. McPherson, the top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2004 to 2006 who later served in the first Trump administration in several prominent civilian military roles, including general counsel of the Army, agreed.

“I would be interested if they could come up for any legal basis for what they did,” he said, adding, “If, in fact, you can fashion a legal argument that says these people were getting ready to attack the U.S. through the introduction of cocaine or whatever, if they turned back, then that threat has gone away.”


No information coming out makes the attack look more legal, it all makes it look less so.

I'd like to see the full pred porn with the turnaround, multiple strikes, what their actions were.
 
From the NYTimes gift article...

A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

The military repeatedly hit the vessel before it sank, the officials added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. The administration has claimed the boat was carrying drugs.

Rear Adm. James E. McPherson, the top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2004 to 2006 who later served in the first Trump administration in several prominent civilian military roles, including general counsel of the Army, agreed.

“I would be interested if they could come up for any legal basis for what they did,” he said, adding, “If, in fact, you can fashion a legal argument that says these people were getting ready to attack the U.S. through the introduction of cocaine or whatever, if they turned back, then that threat has gone away.”


No information coming out makes the attack look more legal, it all makes it look less so.

I'd like to see the full pred porn with the turnaround, multiple strikes, what their actions were.

When has legal ever even slowed this administration down? Lethal, not legal, remember?

What the Constitution deems as rights are now effectively conditional privileges at the discretion of POTUS. That's the world we live in.

Pred feed would be great to see, but unless you have SIPR or higher access, I doubt you'll ever see it.
 
You should know better than to trust the AI answer. It's crowd sourcing clueless social media posts.

Marijuana was the second most comfiscated drug by weight from cartels in 2024.

Marijuana is still illegal to grow domestically and the DEA has aggressively enforced this.

It's true that Marijuana activity is decreasing in lieu of a much more lucrative drug called Fentanyl, but Marijuana remains a significant part of their business.

Virtually 100% of legally sold MJ in the US comes from an illicit supplier.
Have you ever been to Washington state, you my friend are misinformed. There’s grows houses all over the state, right in plan site, and the smell is obvious.
 
A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

No information coming out makes the attack look more legal, it all makes it look less so.

It would be interesting to know from a legal standpoint if the boat turning around has any bearing on whether or not it could have been attacked. I just got done reading a book about the sinking of the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano during the Falklands War and her heading west, away from the islands, when she was attacked and sunk became a big point of controversy after the war. Her heading was immaterial though, as she could easily turn around in a minute or two and head back east. Came out later that the Brits knew she was repositioning after a planned attack was called off but was prepared to take part in another one as soon as the next day.

So while the boat may have been headed back to Venezuela she could have just as easily turned back around if they thought they might get away with making their delivery as intended.
 
It would be interesting to know from a legal standpoint if the boat turning around has any bearing on whether or not it could have been attacked. I just got done reading a book about the sinking of the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano during the Falklands War and her heading west, away from the islands, when she was attacked and sunk became a big point of controversy after the war. Her heading was immaterial though, as she could easily turn around in a minute or two and head back east. Came out later that the Brits knew she was repositioning after a planned attack was called off but was prepared to take part in another one as soon as the next day.

So while the boat may have been headed back to Venezuela she could have just as easily turned back around if they thought they might get away with making their delivery as intended.

Apples and oranges, I think. That's a state military actor in wartime, compared to a state versus non-state actor during... AUMF, I suppose? How the ROE were structured would be instructive here, or if it was simply a "smack that target" type of tasking, with no ROE basis at all.

Based on what I have heard and seen, it just doesn't seem likely it was a "good shoot". We are apparently just supposed to jump on the bandwagon because they were labeled as drug runners. The whole "lethality" thing by Hegseth presupposes we can trust what we are being told. My experience suggests otherwise, which is why I am not comfortable with this.
 
Apples and oranges, I think. That's a state military actor in wartime, compared to a state versus non-state actor during... AUMF, I suppose? How the ROE were structured would be instructive here, or if it was simply a "smack that target" type of tasking, with no ROE basis at all.

There are distinct differences between the two, but the Administration is claiming they are not, sooooo...that's why I'm quite curious about the legal justifications and whether or not heading would have mattered depending on the ROE. Or like you said, maybe it was more of a shoot now ask questions later thing. I'm likely not going to get an answer here, but still interested to hear what folks have to say.
 
Apples and oranges, I think. That's a state military actor in wartime, compared to a state versus non-state actor during... AUMF, I suppose?
This is a worthy question that should be at the center of most Law of Armed Conflict courses. In a drinking debate I’d be willing to toss out an entirely unsubstantiated “fact” that we’ve launched more Hellfires against non-state actors (AUMF) than state military actors. The bigger question here is what kind flexibility does the AUMF give the POTUS? Too much, I feel, but then again I haven’t even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express for a while so my sea-lawyering could be quite weak.
 
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