When even the cops are manufacturing crack, you know the war on drugs is nothing short of a farce.

Ping.

Burque Media exclusively revealed APD’s intentions to become temporary crack manufacturers.

This yellow journalism article makes it sound that APD is going to overly saturate and already area critically saturated Albuquerque with crack cocaine. Nothing is further from the truth. God, I hate yellow journalism.

A drastic problem requires a drastic method to correct.

These unorthodox reverse buy-bust method is taken because crack cocaine poses the most significant drug threat in Albuquerque. Crack cocaine continues to saturate Albuquerque.

It is important to note that the operation calls for the release of no more than EIGHT (8) OUNCES of crack from the Albuquerque Police Department’s Evidence Unit to detectives of the Albuquerque Police Department’s Narcotics Unit for use in a “Reversal Operation.”

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The welcome mat is not so welcome at one gateway hub in Albuquerque.

The Alvarado Transportation Center, just south of First and Central, bustles with people riding the Greyhound bus, the Rail Runner and Amtrak trains. For years when tourists stepped onto the streets, they saw more than the cityscape, the peaks of the Sandia Mountains or the true blue New Mexico sky. They also saw the suspected drug dealing, drug using and loitering right out front of the ATC.

Fred Williams has seen it all from his home at the Silver Gardens Apartments across the street.

“They mess everything up, they don’t clean up after themselves,” he said.

Since February, KRQE News 13 has been recording undercover video and saw the problems first hand. One man counts a wad of cash and makes a hand-off to another. Often the group that hangs out on the stucco benches out front passes around something to smoke that is probably not tobacco. Multiple times KRQE News 13 witnessed suspected drug use and drug deals. Vehicles were seen pulling up to the group and suspected deals were made.

“I think it’s a bad image on New Mexico to be honest,” said Blake McPherson, who saw the problem after stepping out of the ATC.

The welcome mat for visitors included booze bottles, trash and syringe caps.

Residents say the city needs to do more to quell the problem.

“Definitely, definitely,” Williams said.

At times, this activity was happening just steps from security guards. They slowly saunter down the street toward the large group which disperses, but within 30 minutes they come back.

“They’re not worried because they can see if the cops are coming or not. And when the cops do decide to come, they come from one direction, not all directions,” Williams said.

KRQE News 13 showed the undercover video to Albuquerque Police Lt. Arturo Sanchez, who oversees this area working in APD’s Valley Area Command.

“Some of that activity is somewhat consistent with narcotics,” he said.

Sanchez says officers have written citations in the past and admits it wasn’t very effective.

“Those things we tried didn’t work,” he said.

Now the understaffed police department is trying a new approach. Sanchez says officers are now working more closely with the neighbors in the area. Police want the neighbors to help be their eyes and ears as officers promise to step up enforcement.

For a couple of days last week, police set up mobile surveillance cameras. This summer, police hope to be positioned in an office at the bus station, watching a live feed from security cameras.

“It is going to allow the officers when they do have those monitors to have a better view without being seen,” Sanchez said.

Just a few hours after KRQE New 13 interviewed Sanchez, a department spokesman said APD conducted a tact plan at the ATC. Detectives arrested two people accused of having crack cocaine.

As for the negative image for the city, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry says it’s common to see more problems pop up when residents move into downtown areas. They’re more likely to spot the problems and speak up.

“When it’s two against one, the community and public safety against crime, that’s when we make big changes and that’s what we’re starting to see downtown,” Berry said.

KRQE News 13 asked Berry whether the downtown crime speaks to the bigger issue of homeless, mental health and addiction.

“We’re actually leading the nation, and we have other cities across America coming to us to ask us how we’re working with the homeless in our community,” he said.

KRQE News 13 asked Berry’s staff to provide evidence of the mayor’s claim that Albuquerque is a national leader in supporting people living with addiction, mental health issues and homelessness. The city provided its own news releases announcing programs for people struggling with those issues.

Police say they’ll concentrate on this area but admit they can’t watch the area 24/7 and won’t catch everything. “It’s not something that’s going to fix it tomorrow or a week from now. It is a long term plan,” Sanchez said.

A drastic problem requires a drastic method to correct.

Not to worry folks, the Canary Clan in on top of this … ONLY 8 ounces of crack is involved … Stand down and rest easy.

A drastic problem requires a drastic method to correct.

So...cops manufacturing crack and selling it is okey-dokey in your book?

A better solution would be to end the war on drugs.

Fed up with soaring rates of disease from intravenous drug use, Portugal tried something radical: they decriminalized drugs. Yes, all drugs. Across the board from marijuana to heroin to ecstasy. And it worked.

So, has this policy, which goes in the face of everything we’re familiar with in the US, succeeded? Unquestionably, the answer is YES.

• Levels of drug use are below the European average
• Drug use has declined among those aged 15-24, the population most at risk of initiating drug use
• Lifetime drug use among the general population has increased slightly, in line with trends in comparable nearby countries. However, lifetime use is widely considered to be the least accurate measure of a country’s current drug use situation
• Rates of past-year and past-month drug use among the general population – which are seen as the best indicators of evolving drug use trends – have decreased
• Between 2000 and 2005 (the most recent years for which data are available) rates of problematic drug use and injecting drug use decreased
• Drug use among adolescents decreased for several years following decriminalization, but has since risen to around 2003 levels
• Rates of continuation of drug use (i.e. the proportion of the population that have ever used an illicit drug and continue to do so) have decreased

These statistics are indicative of two very significant outcomes of decriminalization. First, punitive laws do little if anything, to discourage drug use or possession. And second, drug use generally follows broader societal trends and is not affected one way or the other, by the degree of punishment in place for partaking.

One would think that you drug warriors would learn a lesson or two from those results.

Free Thought Project

Don't ping me to read your yella tabloid bullshit.

ONLY 8 ounces of crack is involved

Only 8 ounces you say.

Gosh, that's a felony in New Mexico.

New Mexico Drug Possession Laws

Possession of Methamphetamine, GHB, Cocaine, Heroin

The most serious controlled substances, including those classified as Schedule I or Schedule II under the controlled substances act, are included here. Among others, this includes: cocaine, crack-cocaine, heroin, meth, GHB, PCP, and more.

If you are charged with possessing one of these substances, you will face 4^th degree felony charges, along with up to $5,000 in fines and 18 months in prison.

****

I'm sure you will call for these drug manufacturers to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, correct?

You bleat about "only" 8 ounces - you obviously have no clue how much that actually is or how much it goes for.

How much crack cocaine actually costs around the world

...the price of crack around the world varies widely. In Canada, high-grade crack can be purchased on the street for about $130/gram, or as low as $80 for lower-grade drugs. In the United States, though, that number can soar to as high $600 per gram, according to the United Nations World Drug Report.

8 ounces (which you must think is not a lot) equals 226.796 grams. At a cost of $300 per gram (conservatively), 8 ounces turns out to be worth $68,038.80.

We're taking serious felonious drug dealing and manufacturing here by the cops.

Was manufacturing and selling crack a common practice in your department as well?

A drastic problem requires a drastic method to correct.

So...cops manufacturing crack and selling it is okey-dokey in your book?

A better solution would be to end the war on drugs.

Nope. a better solution is to build a fence and make Mexico pay for it.

Now, where have I heard that before ... hmmm.

All the cocaine in Albuquerque is being brought in by the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations.

Your eradicate the source of the problem ... you no longer have a problem.

You say "end the war on drugs" and let cocaine and heroin flow freely in the streets of out cities ... I say "you are an idiot."

Deckard

Free Thought Project

Don't ping me to read your yella tabloid bullshit.

It that, yellow tabloid bullshit ... published by FTP and distributed by Deckard.

ONLY 8 ounces of crack is involved

Only 8 ounces you say.

Gosh, that's a felony in New Mexico.

Gosh, it is a felony for trafficking, but it is the cheese that baits the trap for the druggies who cause problems in Albuquerque where the situation is out of control.

I'm sure you will call for these drug manufacturers to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law...

I will issue a clarion call for the APD to continue their operation and end the drug problem there.

All the cocaine in Albuquerque is being brought in by the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations.

With a little help from their "friends".

U.S. Government and Top Mexican Drug Cartel Exposed as Partners

Relying on over 100 interviews with current and former government functionaries on both sides of the border, as well as official documents from the U.S. and Mexican governments, Mexico’s El Universal concluded that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Justice Department had secretly worked with Mexican drug lords.

The controversial conspiring led to increased violence across Mexico, where many tens of thousands have been murdered in recent years, the newspaper found after its year-long probe. The U.S. agents and their shady deals with Mexican drug lords even sparked what the paper called a “secret war” inside Mexico.

The newspaper’s investigation also confirmed long-held suspicions that U.S. authorities were signing secret agreements with Mexican drug cartels — especially Sinaloa, which CIA operatives have said was a favorite for use in achieving geo-political objectives.

Supposedly without the knowledge or approval of officials in Mexico, ICE and DEA, with a green light from Washington, D.C., made deals with criminal bosses allowing them to avoid prosecution for a vast crime spree that has included mass murder, corruption, bribery, drug trafficking, extortion, and more.

In exchange, cartel leaders simply had to help U.S. officials eliminate their competitors — certainly a win-win scenario for crime bosses who prefer to operate without competition or fear of prosecution.

As The New American first reported in early 2011, a high-ranking operative with the Sinaloa cartel had outlined elements of the criminal agreements with U.S. authorities in official court documents.

“The government of the United States and its various agencies have a long history of providing benefits, permission, and immunity to criminals and their organizations to commit crimes, including murder, in exchange for receiving information against other criminals and other organizations,” trafficker Jesus Vicente “El Vicentillo” Zambada-Niebla argued in U.S. court filings cited by El Universal. The New American has also reported extensively on the Zambada-Niebla case and what it reveals.

CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says

The Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement in drug trafficking is back in the media spotlight after a spokesman for the violence-plagued Mexican state of Chihuahua became the latest high-profile individual to accuse the CIA, which has been linked to narcotics trafficking for decades, of ongoing efforts to “manage the drug trade.” The infamous American spy agency refused to comment.

In a recent interview, Chihuahua state spokesman Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva told Al Jazeera that the CIA and other international “security” outfits "don't fight drug traffickers." Instead, Villanueva argued, they try to control and manage the illegal drug market for their own benefit.

"It's like pest control companies, they only control," Villanueva told the Qatar-based media outlet last month at his office in Juarez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."

Another Mexican official, apparently a mid-level officer with Mexico’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of “Homeland Security,” echoed those remarks, saying he knew that the allegations against the CIA were correct based on talks with American agents in Mexico. "It's true, they want to control it," the official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

Even the New York Times eventually covered part of the scandal in a piece entitled "Anti-Drug Unit of C.I.A. Sent Ton of Cocaine to U.S. in 1990." And the agency’s Inspector General, Frederick Hitz, was eventually forced to concede to a congressional committee that the CIA has indeed worked with drug traffickers and obtained a waiver from the Department of Justice in the 1980s allowing it to conceal its contractors’ illicit dealings.

Gosh, it is a felony for trafficking, but it is the cheese that baits the trap

Ya gotta break the law to enforces the law?

Your selective and situational morality is certainly something to behold

I will issue a clarion call for the APD to continue their operation and end the drug problem there.

In other words you support felonious drug manufacturing and sales of crack cocaine - only as long as the cops are the felons?

Yeah - that's pretty much what I expect from you and others of your ilk.

Oh - and you're a simpleton thinking this will magically end the drug problem.

Yeah - that's pretty much what I expect from you and others of your ilk.

Well, sonny, it is pretty much what I expected from you ... to distribute this yellow journalism shit that makes the APD manufacturing 8 ounces of crack for a sting operation sound like a violation of the law and a major problem.

There is NOTHING to be concerned about ... we are done here. I will waste no more time.

But should you there ever be a need for truth and justice to prevail again, everyone should feel free to call on:

the APD manufacturing 8 ounces of crack

There is NOTHING to be concerned about ...

Good grief, your boot-licking has reached an all-time low.

According to some on this forum there's only one way to fix the problem -- make crack cocaine legal.

Portugal has dealt with the problem with successful results.

"Portugal has dealt with the problem with successful results."

Move to Portugal. Register as a drug user and you'll get counseling instead of a penalty.

Then try to find a job as a registered drug user.