David Luhnow:

A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government's war on drugs summed up recently what he's learned from his long career: "This war is not winnable."

From a cop on "The Wire", on fighting drugs:

"You can't even call it a war. Wars end."

Luhnow:

If the war on drugs has failed, analysts say it is partly because it has been waged almost entirely as a law-and-order issue, without understanding of how cartels work as a business.

Maria Claudia Gomez, on Pablo Escobar's ranch:

"This place is really nice and tranquil."

Luhnow:

Unlike their rough-hewn parents and uncles, today's young traffickers wear Armani suits, carry BlackBerrys and hit the gym for exercise.

Frank Bruni:

Indica was fixated on my friend Ari. I asked her what kind of phone she had.

"A Sidekick," she said.

"Wow," I said. "That's the same kind Brianna has."

"Strippers' phone of choice," she said.

Luhnow:

Several US states like California and Oregon have decriminalized marijuana ... While this strategy may make sense domestically for the US, Mexican officials say it is the worst possible outcome for Mexico, because it guarantees demand for the drug by eliminating the risk that if you buy you go to jail. But it keeps the supply chain illegal, ensuring that organized crime will be the drug's supplier.

David Simon:

As a reporter, I was trying to explain how the drug war doesn't work. And I would write these very careful and very well-researched pieces. And they would go into the ether and be gone. And whatever editorial writer was coming behind me would then write, "Let's get tough on drugs." As if I hadn't said anything. Even my own newspaper. And I would think, "Man, it's just such an uphill struggle to do this with facts."

Viktor Chernomyrdin:

We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.