After two days of meeting with Mexican officials, Attorney General, Eric Holder said:

Cooperation between the United States and Mexico was stronger and fundamentally different than that which existed in the past.

Before meeting with the Mexican President, Felipe Calderón, AG Holder and Mexican Attorney General, Eduardo Medina-Mora, held an interview. Both admitted that the stakes were high for both countries in stopping the drug violence in Mexico. Both denied Pentagon reports that the drug war was pushing Mexico to becoming a failed state.

Mr. Medina-Mora said:

Mexico has never been a weak state. It is not today. It will never be in the future. We have faced even more difficult problems than this one. And it is relevant to put this in perspective.

Ironically enough, what is happening in Mexico already happened in Columbia with Pablo Esobar. He had either threatened or bribed his way to taking over the country. A group had turned into an army. At the time it was believed he was finally taken out by South American Security Forces, but it’s been known for some time that Delta Force had joined the hunt and managed to kill Escobar with a single sniper’s bullet. Escobar was taken out after he made the Forbes Billionaire list… ‘El Chapo’, a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico recently made that very list. May history soon be repeating itself?

He added:

What is at stake is the ability of Mexico to keep peace and tranquility for its citizens. That is why our objective is not ending drug trafficking. It is to remove power from these groups and remove their ability to seize and to kidnap our right to live in peace.

If their objective is not to end drug trafficking, then what is it? This is what keeps these organizations in business. If you cut them off from their drugs, then you cut them off from making money. It’s interesting to note that Mora was at one time the head of the CISEN, which is the Mexican equivalent of the CIA. If anyone should have intelligence that can lead them to the cartels, it’d be him. The timing of an American visit is not coincidental either, after a week that the Mexican President spoke out and said cartel drug money was going into Washington pockets.

AG Holder and and the Secretary of Homeland Security eventually met up with Mexican President Felipe Calderón. They talked about providing training to Mexican canine teams and enhancing coordination between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy. Apparently there is concern that by beefing up the land boarders, it will drive the illegal immigrants and drug smugglers to use the Pacific Ocean to get into the United States.

Ms. Napolitano said of the United States and Mexico, after the meeting with Mr. Calderón:

We are going to operate almost like a vise. We’re going to take out the cartels that have been plaguing our communities for far too long.

AG Holder added that they were sending 100 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the southern boarders to stop the sale of “straw gun purchases” in which a background check is conducted on one person and they in turn give the guns to others. AG Holder also snuck in a comment about marijuana sales central to the drug trade, and is exploring ways lower the minimum amount required for the federal prosecution of possession cases.

The reality of the level of cooperation that now exists is fundamentally different from that which existed in the past. The current Mexican administration was in a fundamentally different place, and the possibilities of cooperation, as a result, are substantially greater, and they will show results.

Great. Things are fundamentally different, we get it. After countless kidnappings and deaths attributed to the drug trade, along with countless drugs actually making it into the United States and more and more criminal organizations popping up all over the United States, you finally decided to change things.

Mora concluded the interview by saying that all federal agencies involved with investigating and enforcing laws on organized crime were being used by both Mexican and U.S. investigators. Mora said that the Mexican government was upgrading it’s law enforcement infrastructure and technology oversee officers’ activities and detect irregularities — which Mora claims may be caused by “technical reasons or because of corruption.”

Great. Now Mexico can develop into a police state just like it’s Big Brother. They can develop tools to combat the threat of organized crime but then at the same time keep an eye on their citizens. It’s amusing that Mora mentions corruption. What they need to do is find out who within their governments are pocketing drug money in both countries, arrest them, lock them up in the same prisons that they helped keep full, throw away the key and then start changing laws and going after cartels and ending their reign of violence once and for all.

Charlie Lynch was granted a delay until April 30th, when Federal Judge George H. Wu on Monday, postponed his sentencing for the conviction of running a medical marijuana dispensary. This move came after last week, when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that federal authorities would not seek to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries if the operations complied with state and local laws. The Judge asked the Department of Justice to clarify its revised position on such cases, a departure from the Bush administration policy that federal narcotics laws complied.

What makes this case so jaw-dropping unbelievable is the fact that since Charlie Lynch was hauled into a Federal court, Lynch’s lawyers could not mention the state law that permits the use of medical marijuana or mention the numerous people that the dispensary helped. Around 30 pounds was seized, his house and business were raided by more men that what it took to take out Pablo Escobar and there were reports that he could face up to 100 years! At the very minimum he faces up to 5 years in a federal prison.

When 20/20 reported this story, they said that Charlie Lynch and his medical marijuana dispensary were operating within the state laws. In fact, prior to opening his dispensary he obtained a business license and joined the Chamber of Commerce. The Mayor was at the ribbon cutting ceremony. If the case was really looked at you would see that Charlie Lynch was the subject of a witch hunt led by San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges. Since day one of Lynch’s ribbon cutting ceremony, the Sheriff department had staked out the business. Prior to targeting Lynch’s facility — Hedges was known to speak out about medical marijuana dispensaries during the public meetings.

According to Lynch’s lawyer, John Littrell:

They sent in undercover sheriff’s deputies to go encourage Charlie to break the federal law. In every case, what they found was that his employees always verified doctor’s recommendations. No one could manage to get anybody, Charlie or anyone that Charlie was working with, to dispense marijuana in a way that violated state law.

After a year, the Sheriff’s department turned over information to the DEA that Charlie Lynch was selling marijuana. Although Medical Marijuana is legal in California, federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic – the same as heroin.

Another of Lynch’s Lawyers, Reuven Cohen, stated:

Under federal law, marijuana is a more serious narcotic than crack cocaine.

What’s curious is that the NY Times article reports that Charlie Lynch’s medical marijuana dispensary was not in compliance with state law, because minors were sold medical marijuana. Nowhere was that mentioned in the 20/20 report where this story first originated. So which is it? One news media source says he was in full compliance and another media source says that he was selling to minors. Where did this charge come from? Was it added by the local prosecutor in order to justify in targeting and arresting Charlie Lynch in the first place?

It’s good to see a Federal Judge not afraid to contact the powers that be and ask them just what the hell they are supposed to do now that the policy has shifted. Charlie Lynch’s case will no doubt set the precidence for all the others that are being tried or have already been tried. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney in Los Angeles, said that he could not comment on the specifics of the request by Judge George H. Wu, but that prosecutors “do believe that Mr. Lynch violated state law.” If he violated state law then why was he tried in a Federal court?

The 30 pounds of marijuana that was seized is nothing compared to the amount of marijuana that is illegally trafficked by actual criminal organizations throughout California. Just once I’d like to see a news report talking about the bust of one of these types of organizations… ones that also deal harder drugs and pills — true narcotics… ones that leave dead bodies in the streets or uses violence to move their product… the ones that the local law enforcement or federal government just can’t seem to infiltrate and bring down.

For those waiting to see when Obama was to stay true to his word about ending medical marijuana raids — the time is now.

And to Obama’s credit, it’s only a couple months into his first term, not a couple years into his second one. Good for him, good for us and even better for dispensary owners who are being locked up for legally providing medicine to people.

US Attorney General Eric Holder hinted this would be new policy, but officially announced it at a press conference yesterday.

Ending months of speculation, the Seattle P-I reports a former Seattle police chief will be named the country’s next “drug czar.”

Unfortunately, it’s not Norm Stamper, it’s Gil Kerlikowske – and the jury is still out on him.

Kerlikowske has kept a national profile in the last nine years. As Seattle’s chief of police he’s appeared on several major networks as a member or chair of multiple national law enforcement organizations. He’s spoken out on topics like nonlethal weapons for officers to emphasizing community policing.

Impressively, he leaves Seattle with crime at a 40-year low.

I haven’t seen anything from NORML about him yet, but I’m sure we’ll hear more once the announcement is made official.

Having lived next to Seattle for a couple years, I’ve heard several firsthand accounts of the police being fairly reasonable in the city in regards to possession scenarios, as long as you’re not a dirtbag or uncooperative.

How well Kerlikowske meshes with Eric Holder, who heads the Department of Justice, will be an interesting dynamic to watch.

Many left-wing pundits are a little surprised by the signals, mixed or otherwise, sent by Obama’s choice for U.S. Attorney General – Eric Holder.

Tasked with setting the federal agenda for prosecution, many are shocked Obama went with a former prosecutor who has repeatedly called for stiffer sentences for drug users.

According to a December 1996 report in The Washington Times excerpted at TalkLeft, Holder wanted “minimum sentences of 18 months for first-time convicted drug dealers, 36 months for the second time and 72 months for every conviction thereafter.

The article in Reason does a pretty good job of summing up why so many are scared.
Holder’s record suggests he epitomizes the Clinton administration’s desperation to prove that a Democrat who used to smoke pot can too be tough on drugs—precisely the motivation that could make Obama just as bad on drug policy as the current administration, if not worse.

It’s cheeky and optimistic to start talking about who Obama would put in his cabinet, but it’s interesting to speculate since it could impact everyone’s lives. The attorney general helps set prosecutorial priority in the country, which has been aimed at drug offenders in the past eight years.

Based on his network and advisors, a blog lists two likely choices: Eric Holder, a partner with the firm of Covington & Burling, and Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. Again, the choices are pure speculation so don’t jump off the Obama ship just yet, but in 1997 according to NORML, Holder “proposed legislation to stiffen penalties for the possession of marijuana” while with the Justice Department.

For more information, the American Bar Assoication Journal provides a more in-depth analysis of the AG situation.