COVERITLIVE.COM

9:22

Huffington Post - Ryan Grim will be right here at 3 p.m. EST to take questions on NAFTA and the drug cartles, and on anything else drug-related. In the meantime, you can submit your questions and comments for Ryan immediately below. See you at 3 p.m. EST.

2:59

Ryan Grim - Thanks, Larry, for showing the best way to get your question posted here ;) Seriously, thanks for the kind words and welcome everybody. It’s been great to be here at HuffPost with an audience that takes the issue as seriously as it should be taken. I’m always up for the laugh and, let’s admit it, drugs can be funny. But they’re also deadly serious – both the consequences of addiction and the pain that comes from arrest, prosecution and prison. Even a misdemeanor arrest for marijuana can change somebody’s life, end their career, cost custody of kids or all sorts of other consequences far, far worse than the consequence of smoking the joint itself – if there is any at all. Yet the mainstream media, when it does cover the issue, always does so with a chuckle and relying mostly on the word of law enforcement folks. That’s starting to change, though, as the economy plummets, we sink deeper in debt while missing out on tax revenue and spending it on prisons. All the while, a war rages on our southern border. So the recent shift in media attention to the issue has been welcome.

There were dozens of questions I could get to in our last chat that I hope to this time. If I don’t, please feel free to email or post your question on the book’s Facebook page, where I promise I’ll get to it.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/This-Is-Your-Country-On-DrugsThe-Secret-History-of-Getting-High-in-America/96803619604?created

3:00	[Comment From Larry Stevens] Ryan, I love your reporting on Huffpo. I've been following (and advocating) drug policy reform since the 90s and your work is the highest profile truth-telling on this issue I've ever encountered.

3:01

Ryan Grim - I think I forgot to post Larry's question. Typical.

3:05

[Comment From poli]
For decades there have been "rumors of CIA drug trafficking , there are well known examples of Government " undercover drug sales and French connection type of operations, my question is then what percentage of the North American drug trade is controlled by the border states and the Mexican and US Federal governments? How does this government interference effect the trade ?

3:08

Ryan Grim - Except for some notable examples, the drug trade is, as far as I can tell, private entities. For years, they've had close connections with the Mexican government, Mexican police or Colombian government or rebels or paramilitaries, but the CIA's involvement has largely been, as far as can be proven in the '80s, to turn a blind eye to the Contras. Of course, a blind eye is no small thing, since the biggest risk of an illegal enterprise is getting caught.

In talking about the drug market, it's always very hard to talk specific percentages, but nearly all of the cocaine now shipped into the US comes across the Mexican border as far as I can tell from public reports.

For more on the Contras, here's an excerpt of my book from Monday

http://www.theroot.com/views/black-paranoid-and-absolutely-right?page=0,0

3:09	[Comment From james redmon] you can ignore this if it's been answered, but was that a deafening silence to the UN finally responding to various studies, mostly European, signaling how enticing it would be to the overall health of nations to decriminalize the majority of substances?

3:11

Ryan Grim - james -- i wish i could say i was surprised that the story of the UN drug czar backing Portugal's decrim policy was ignored, but it's very hard for drug stories to break through. You pretty much have to have a real live shooting war going on (Mexico) or have Lindsay Lohan involved.

3:11	[Comment From vito danelli] hello

3:11

Ryan Grim - hi

3:11	[Comment From Guest] Is there any particular reason to be concerned for touristic safety in the Cancun environs? This wholly ignorant question is based solely on the slaying of the Mexican general earlier this year.

3:13

Ryan Grim - If you are a Mexican general in cancun, there is every reason to be very concerned about your safety. If you're an American tourist in the tourist area you are pretty safe, I understand. I'll be going to Mexico myself later this summer and it's costing less than half of what it would a year ago. A pandemic and a drug war will do that.

3:13	[Comment From Bernard] What does Special K do? My friend offered it to me but I didn't want it because I didn't know what it was. Also, I don't like House music.

3:15

Ryan Grim - It slows everything down and puts you in a weird, semi-hallucinatory phase. Anyone who's done it is free to weigh in. It's not the safest drug in the world and I wouldn't recommend it. People love to mix it with other stuff, too, which I again wouldn't recommend. I don't necessarily recommend House music either. But it has its place.

3:15	[Comment From Worried Mom] How would you feel if you caught your teenage son doing drugs?

3:17

Ryan Grim - I've got a kid coming in the fall, so this is a question I'll be confronting. I want my kids to act safely and responsibly, of course. Drinking and getting high underage isn't good for kids (although I'm sure some of you out there would object to that), except the occasional French-style glass of wine with kids. As a Worried Mom, what's your advice?

3:18	[Comment From Chris] I heard you're going to be in NYC next week doing a comedy show and book talk. Any truth to that rumor?

3:19

Ryan Grim - Yes indeed. I'll be at Bluestockings on Monday and The Tank for the reading/comedy event Wednesday. Here's the details...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/This-Is-Your-Country-On-DrugsThe-Secret-History-of-Getting-High-in-America/96803619604?created#/event.php?eid=99897192957

Hope you can make it

3:19

[Comment From JoshOrConOrBoth]
Hello Ryan - Thanks for the fantastic research efforts. Can you say definitively that one drug or another tracks closely, or at least more closely, with violent crimes. I'm hoping to hear that the Mexican cartel was more or less violent during it's phases of moving different products, or is there really no way to tell?

3:22

Ryan Grim - I don't think it's the product, actually, but the market. When black market's are emerging or receding or otherwise in flux, there's more violence. When crack emerged, for instance, there was a ton of violence over who'd control it. That violence receded as groups consolidated control. Use declined some, but the largest cause of the decline in fighting was that certain people won. It's the peace between the lion and the lamb, as they say. Of course, when a top dealer dies off or goes to prison, the fighting starts anew.

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