Border propaganda emphasizes heroin as reason everyones a suspectAaron Dykes Though U.S. Customs Border Patrol admittedly stop less than 10% of all heroin trafficking, the enormity of the problem with drugs and violent Mexican cartels still SEEMS to justify why everyone from an 82-year-old to a mom traveling with kids needs to be treated as a potential terrorist/drug smuggler and combed over with drug dogs, mirrors, electronic density detectors and intimidating questions never mind the rights of American citizens and even international visitors. America is/must be a Constitution-free zone at the border, and a veritable Police State inside her borders to fulfill the insane mandate of a completely failed War on Drugs. USA Today and comparable outlets conveniently fail to mention the backdrop of heroins surge, or the deep politics of the drug war: U.S. troops admittedly guard and help work the poppy fields in Afghanistan; heroin production has increased drastically since the onset of the U.S. war against and occupation of Afghanistan. Wachovia and other major U.S. banks and Wall Street entities have been implicated in laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. Investigation of a crashed plane carrying numerous tons of cocaine conclusively linked Wachovia to an estimated $370 Billion+ in laundered funds connected to the Sinoloa drug cartel. The bank, since absorbed by Wells Fargo, has had to pay fines for its involvement. U.S. forces were caught smuggling heroin in the body bags of U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, and opium from the Golden Triangle was a hidden-but-pivotal factor in both Vietnam Afghanistan, despite the publics ignorance about this horror. Gary Webbs investigation, documented in his book Dark Alliance, uncovered the involvement in covert U.S. agencies (CIA, DEA, et al.) in drug smuggling to Los Angeles and other locales in conjunction with cartels working for the Contras. This was a subset (or side plot, if you prefer) to the larger Iran-Contra scandal. Despite all this, the burden of suspicion falls on the average nobody crossing the border, or pulled over during traffic stops. The majority of arrests, convictions and prosecutions in the Drug War- now overwhelming the prison system and creating the largest prison population in the world is carried out on low level users, street dealers and petty gangs, with a total failure to break the system that is fueling drug violence and epidemic usage. There is an utter failure to learn the lessons of alcohol prohibition, which fueled big city gangs, created speakeasies and a violent black market, while building up new police units, government powers, gun control laws and fortunes for the large-scale bootleggers. Are we afraid to even suggest the idea of Decriminalization? Will the streets be filled with junkies and the hospitals with overdoses of street drugs? Maybe, but statistics have suggested otherwise, while many more die from prescription drug overdoses and still-dangerous replacement treatments (such as a Methadone) than from street heroin. Are the lives of the 50,000 to 100,000 killed by violent cartels not enough reason to consider puncturing the illicit drug business by DROPPING all the checkpoints and patrols? Who created all the demand for drugs anyway, and what kind of subversion is happening to society? Would changes in the law be the quickest way to deflate the otherwise unstoppable drug cartels? Not sure, but its time we at least started raising the questions, because liberty is under attack, and no serious dent is being placed on the drug supply. If the Border Patrol lined up every granny, soccer mom and possibly suspicious male for a cavity search, it admittedly would do nothing to stop the ever increasing supply of drugs so why put ordinary and innocent people through so much trouble, if it is admittedly all just pomp and circumstance? Aaron Dykes is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com, where this first appeared. As a writer, researcher and video producer who has worked on numerous documentaries and investigative reports, he uses history as a guide to decode current events, uncover obscure agendas and contrast them with the dignity afforded individuals as recognized in documents like the Bill of Rights. 