just like swallowing a baby carrot

September 25, 2015 6:23 AM

A drug mule for a Mexican cartel flies into Dayton, OH, gives up a kilo of heroin to federal agents, and provides a narrow glimpse of the current drug trade. (SLWaPo).

A commenter with personal experience notes that "the author has his terms switched. Boy is heroin and girl is cocaine."

posted by pjenks (13 comments total)

One day we'll look back on all this and think "why didn't we treat this as a public health problem instead of a fucking crime". The sheer amount of human life and potential we've squandered in the drug war is beyond belief.
posted by Talez at 6:31 AM on September 25, 2015 [16 favorites]

well.... The resurgence of heroin is 100% linked to the floodgates of oxy and other over-prescribed painkillers that were given out like candy for years, until the FDA started to crack down on the pill-mill doctors, causing the addicts to seek something else .. The "legal" drug companies made a fortune.
posted by k5.user at 6:42 AM on September 25, 2015 [10 favorites]

If you're interested in some amazing writing about the drug trade in Mexico and the US with great inside baseball level detail, Don Winslow's "Power of the Dog" and "Cartel" are both eye-opening.
posted by nevercalm at 6:51 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Funny strange how the Taliban had pretty much put an end to opium poppy production and how the US now has troops protecting it.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:58 AM on September 25, 2015 [6 favorites]

my town is having a dope crisis right now. many anecdotes from the local recovery community that there is *lots* of dope coming home w/soldiers from Afghanistan. no cite, but seems plausible.
posted by j_curiouser at 7:19 AM on September 25, 2015

The most outrageous thing about this story is that there's apparently a place called the "Dayton Motor Motel." How embarrassing. Learn to use a portmanteau, Dayton!
posted by Sys Rq at 7:57 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

ah yes, the Daytmor.
posted by entropone at 8:55 AM on September 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

Reading this article makes me very worried about the safety of Gerardo Vargas's family back in Mexico. These Mexican drug cartels are notoriously violent and vengeful.
posted by Blogwardo at 9:14 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

"the war on drugs" makes as much sense as "the war on bullets" because it turns out drugs are the tools destroying lives and making money for drug suppliers, not the enemy to be overcome. The only people to benefit from the war on drugs are the cartels and those working to militarize the police force. Thanks to the "war" the victims most in need of help are targets instead.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:54 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Prohibition doesn't work, never has, never will. Legalizing everything.
posted by chance at 10:28 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Blogwardo, one would hope that names were changed. If not then that is truly clueless and irresponsible writing. OTOH, if they were changed and there were an actual mule called Gerardo Vargas then ... poor guy.
posted by epo at 12:24 PM on September 25, 2015

Funny strange how the Taliban had pretty much put an end to opium poppy production and how the US now has troops protecting it.

Oh, hey, look at this old NYT article (and make a note of the date). We have always been at war with [fill in the blank, please use pencil].
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:16 PM on September 25, 2015

Legalization is no panacea and can make things infinitely worse. After the forced legalization of opium in Chiba by the British, drug use increased so much it actually caused a famine because so much arable land had been converted to poppy production. However, prohibition combined with total market control and treatment programs worked extremely well in China. It went from having one of the worst drug epidemics in history to almost no drug problem in a very short time. Of course when the government decided to let go of the economy and privatize treatment things quickly fell apart. However they have not reached anywhere near the level of problems that were experienced during the period when drugs were legal.

Prohibition of alcohol also worked well in the US in terms of a reduction in spousal and child abuse. Many other crimes were also reduced during this period.

Addiction is a scary complicated mess. Arguably legalization and regulation doesn't seem to work in modern America either. After all the whole reason the heroin problem is popping up is because of the addictions started by the legal expensive OxyContin.
posted by wobumingbai at 1:14 AM on September 26, 2015