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Legal marijuana is taking a bite out of drug cartels' profits

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Legal marijuana is taking a bite out of drug cartels' profits

#2

Post by cygnus_a »

This is one of the main reasons I support legalization and/or decriminalization of all drugs. Demand is demand, and a black market economy is worse than a transparent & regulated economy.

I think it's still necessary to focus on reducing demand (through education and self-help, not punishment).

Re: Legal marijuana is taking a bite out of drug cartels' profits

#5

Post by pcl »

The cartels, of course, are adapting to the new reality. Seizure data appears to indicate that with marijuana profits tumbling, they're switching over to heroin and meth.

This is a really interesting development. There's always been this "gateway drug" argument around pot: once people start with marijuana, they'll move onto the harder stuff. I can imagine that there might be a correlation, but I expect that the causality is the other way around: once you break the law a bit for pot, and discover that it's really not a big deal, you assume that the other illegal drugs are probably fine too.

As marijuana becomes more and more legal in the US, it'll be interesting to see which way the causal link goes.

Re: Legal marijuana is taking a bite out of drug cartels' profits

#7

Post by notthegov »

pcl wrote: post #5

The cartels, of course, are adapting to the new reality. Seizure data appears to indicate that with marijuana profits tumbling, they're switching over to heroin and meth. This is a really interesting development. There's always been this "gateway drug" argument around pot: once people start with marijuana, they'll move onto the harder stuff. I can imagine that there might be a correlation, but I expect that the causa…

Cannabis being illegal actually influences people to use prescription drugs and meth. If someone has a job that drug tests them or are on probation, then people will choose harder drugs (or alcohol). The only drug aside from PCP that stays in your system over 3 days is cannabis.

Re: Legal marijuana is taking a bite out of drug cartels' profits

#8

Post by ocdtrekkie »

leeoniya wrote: post #4
andrewstuart wrote: post #3

Pot is still illegal in Australia because, you know, it's bad.

But alcohol is, you know, grrrreeeat! /s

The fact that we have one terrible substance that is legal isn't a justification to legalize another.

Re: Legal marijuana is taking a bite out of drug cartels' profits

#9

Post by dominotw »

cygnus_a wrote: post #2

This is one of the main reasons I support legalization and/or decriminalization of all drugs. Demand is demand, and a black market economy is worse than a transparent & regulated economy. I think it's still necessary to focus on reducing demand (through education and self-help, not punishment).

>Demand is demand, and a black market economy is worse than a transparent & regulated economy.

would this apply to gun ownership too?

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