America's Unspoken Dark Side: The CIA Drug Trade

To begin, secret government activities need secret and sometimes illegal source of funds. An illegal trade like drugs has the potential for huge profits. The drug trade also is one of the largest parts of the cash economy, estimated at over 1/5 of all cash transactions. From the High School kid buying a $20 bag of weed to the big city dealer buying $50,000 of coke, these cash transactions help the economy by increasing the transfer of wealth from one person to the next. With the international drug trade, huge exports of drugs from one nation leads to foreign, corporate investment in the nation. If a drug cartel has $100,000,000 in cash from a large deal, they do not put this money in a vault, they invest it by opening a Wal-Mart or Home Depot in their nation.
The CIA has been rumored for years to help facilitate this trade. With the "Big Brother" security abilities our intelligence agencies have today, it would be easy for the drug trade to grind to a stop pretty quickly. From monitoring cell phone calls to tracking known dealers, the ability to end the drug trade would be fairly easy in our modern society. The government has no desire to do this though, because the economy and the CIA funding would dry up.
An ex-acquaintance of mine who was a heavy pot smoker introduced me to his dealer, who was arrested numerous times, yet never spent a day in jail. His father was a top investigator in the local police force. He admitted to me that he works as an informant for the local police department. If someone wants to buy a large amount, he reports it, otherwise, the police do not take further actions. They do track each person who this dealer has dealings with by monitoring his phone, but no criminal action is taken. The most curious part of the story was his source of his marijuana. After buying from shady dealers for years, he was put in touch with a "police approved" supplier. So with the police’s full knowledge, this dealer buys drugs, and sells them to the public, with no action being taken. I have heard similar stories from individuals from across the nation.
I know many will think this is just a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory, and I admit, I have no indisputable proof of the government/CIA complicity in the drug trade. There have been numerous known CIA airplanes that have crashed with massive amounts of Cocaine. Past "drug wars" during the 80s never had the effect of lessening the drug usage in America, but eased the flow of drugs in most cases. Many people "in the know" have discussed the secret CIA involvement in the drug trade, but other then the Internet, a great deal hasn’t been discussed or published about it.
Barack Obama appears to have no deep connections to this drug trade or people who have made their livelihoods from it. Will he investigate these covert actions? Will he legalize some drugs while having an actual war on other drugs? With a president who appears to care more about the truth then protecting his buddies, The Obama Administration could be transformative for the Dark Side of America and its secret actions.

Working Together for a Better Tomorrow. Let's keep the citizenry engaged!

Now that election season is over, the nation is slowly going back to normal life. I worry that in a few weeks, the nation will become complacent again and forget about the challenges and the needed change that we all were so deeply engaged in for the past few months. A strong democracy happens not only from a strong leader, but an engaged and informed citizenry. This is OUR responsibility!

The United States of America face numerous challenges in the upcoming months and years. Rebuilding our reputation from the extreme damage the Bush Administration has done is the most pressing. Will Russia hold the same disdain for an Obama Administration as it held for the current one? Will Obama end the NATO expansion in Eastern Europe? Is a rebuilt international reputation possible without addressing the crimes committed in the previous administration? Will we be able to tell another nation not to torture or invade another nation when our leaders did the same with immunity?

With a recession, and the potential of a deep depression, creating a more sustainable economy that lets our nation prosper needs to be accomplished in the next few months. An economy built on credit is doomed to failure, but so many powerful interests depend on this type of economy. Will an Obama Administration be able to address these two diverging interests? Should we be reexamining our monetary policy?

Getting America off oil is a long term, but vital mission that needs to be undertaken. Will Obama be able to direct the country towards an ethanol based energy infrastructure? Or are the Oil interests to powerful to allow this to happen?

Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Russia, Venezuela, Columbia all needs a new type of diplomacy to stabilize the world powers. From Darfur to Zimbabwe, Africa needs to be addressed in a more direct way, more then just giving them AIDs vaccines.

I feel that Barack Obama understands these issues, but does the average American fully understand the issues at play today? They realize we face huge problems, but do they grasp the enormity of it all? In this time of transition, I feel it is all of our responsibilities, to help educate the American population of the problems the world and our nation face today. A fully engaged public can help direct the government to address the issues that are vital to our future, but have been downplayed and disregarded throughout the Bush Administration, and even previous administrations.

Let’s help make this new age of "Change" the time that history looks back and says this is the point when mankind moved past the age of distraction and petty politics and worked towards the betterment of mankind. Lets end the age of Lewinsky, OJ, Gay Marriage, and Abortion and move towards a future where ending world hunger and extreme poverty, stopping unnecessary war, and improving all of our lives are the headlines of our newspapers and what is discussed around the water cooler.

Lets work together to make a better tomorrow. It is OUR responsibility!