That isn't real legalization. I hope the voters there are going to take it up again and lower the taxes to the point where users start actually paying those taxes.

Yeah, but somewhere in there is the cost to avoid the cops, and hide. Even with minimum wage, a "Cartel" can't exist on thin margins. That's a cartel more like Amway, Tupperware and Mary Kay.

Cartels have no government requirements for minimum wage, health care, disability, OSHA, etc.,etc. Cuts the overhead quite a bit, even without the license fees.

Woops. Shocking that government screwed this up too. Don't think it has to be this way. No way and underground org, can compete with an unburdened legal org...without overbearing government.

Legalization ups the price for licensed pot. Colorado's black market for marijuana is going gangbusters, because the cartels don't need no stinking license.

Funny how that works. Go back with big numbers, and a "I'm a friend of the community attitude".

or legalize marijuana.

Urban police are trying to reduce their presence in areas where they've been accused of racist enforcement. The result? Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, New York have all seen double digit increase in violent criminal activity, and those neighborhoods are now pleading for the cops to come back.

Sadly, the game preserves and parks have become farms for illegal marijuana, and other drug cartel activity. Those SOBs can be pretty dangerous, and park rangers have had fatal result from coming in contact with them. No other recourse but to "up-gun" when you run into superior firepower.

Properly armed Border patrol? Like the one our 'Federal' government was supposed to provide under the constitution? Yah, they are different, They stand up for their rights and Humanity. That is why the left has concentrated their perverse efforts there.

police should have weapons and gear and tactics
and strategy at least one step ahead of the evildoers
whom they face, on the job. . since I tend to over-
estimate evildoers, I would ask others to determine
this. . like our marketplace team, Wheatley. -- j
.

Looks like those fishermen catching illegal sea mackerel had better watch out. What's the caliber of those guns? It seems like they just might do some harm to human flesh.

This is a waste of money and either supports bad behavior, or is indicative of an attitude consistent with bad behavior on the part of police (whatever kind of police.)

No police force need machine guns, period. Maye, maybe, maybe SWAT teams need full auto, but I even doubt that have any value.

This militarization of police is consistent with the abuses people assert are racially motivated, but I strongly argue the abuses are just a leading indicator because of the high interaction with police in higher crime, poorer areas.

Freedom lost

Is that John Kerry I see in that swift boat???