Does Felipe Calderon even know what he's doing?

MEXICO CITY (AFP) — President Felipe Calderon Friday acknowledged the country's drug war is bloodier and tougher than he thought when he first took office in 2006, but vowed to eradicate the "cancer" that is consuming Mexico.

Really? That's odd because this has gone exactly as I expected and I haven’t been to Mexico in 20 years. He's the president. Why is he struggling to understand the basic dimensions of his own drug war?

If he admits that he didn't know it would get this bad, one wonders what else he doesn’t know. There were 6,000 people killed in Mexico's drug war last year alone and things appear to be getting worse, not better. Even Calderon's updated assessment may be proven horribly naïve.  

How much longer can the leaders of the drug war continue feigning surprise when their policies fail?

Via DrugWarRant:

ERWIN, Tenn. -- A man was been arrested after police said he used counterfeit money to purchase fake OxyContin pills from an undercover officer.

Unicoi County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 21-year-old man on Tuesday and charged him with criminal conspiracy with schedule II drugs, forgery and criminal simulation. [Pantagraph.com]

It's almost funny, except the part where this poor bastard goes to jail for some drugs that never even existed.

The power shift in Washington isn’t looking favorably on the folks who ran Bush's drug war. Oh, the irony:

Justin Rand, 24, formerly a "confidential assistant" in the White House's drug policy office, exited right before the election to work on John McCain's campaign -- so, he hoped, he could remain at the White House. After McCain's loss, Rand could no longer stay in Washington because, among other reasons, he couldn't find a job. He has since moved in with his parents in Jacksonville, Fla. [Washington Post]

So basically, this guy got hooked on anti-drug propaganda and let it take over his whole life. He was doing it five days a week and surrounding himself with some of the best-known suppliers. Now he's unemployed and lives with his folks.

Parents, please don't let your kids end up like Justin. There are some warning signs that your loved one may be addicted to the drug war, such as lying about drug use statistics and hanging out with sketchy people like David Murray.

They'll usually try to rationalize the behavior ("I'm just doing my job"), but the truth is that supporting the drug war is associated with impaired judgment and prolonged exposure can turn you into an insufferable jerktard.