We've created a monster with the War on Drugs. It will only get worse unless we reverse course. Unless we do, the violence/terrorism on the border could increase dramatically. We have a historical model in alcohol prohibition and know what it does and what happens after. We blame Mexico, Central and South America for much of this but policies and our actions there are creating these black markets where only criminals…
Well, drug consumers can stop purchasing drugs that you know that involve the cartels. But most people that talk about the "War on Drugs" would rather blame the US drug policies instead, rather than the own up to the fact that they are contributing to the problem. I would also like to point out that legalizing drugs would not solve the problem. The problem is corruption, not the drugs themselves. Look at Miami in the…
So, why don't farmers do this? That's pretty much all most drug production is. Perhaps, that a bale of hay isn't worth millions of dollars, has something to do with it?
The comparison to alcohol prohibition is spot-on. You are correct that legalizing drugs would not solve the problem overnight. But again, look to alcohol prohibition as an example: ending prohibition did not destroy the American Cosa Nostra, but it did deprive it of a primary source of funding which, along with some new laws and law enforcement techniques, and time (measured in decades), enabled law enforcement agencies to reduce those organizations to a shadow of their former selves.
So it will go with the Cartels. Yes it will still take time, but you have to start somewhere.
> I'm not against the legalization of drugs, I'm against the dishonesty.
Frankly, the ends justify the means. 20 years ago people would still get hysterical about something as benign as marijuana. If the only way to correct that in the face of a federal government that does (or did, at least, at the time) spend heaps of money reinforcing it, is to introduce 'medical marijuana' at the state level, as a trojan horse, in the hopes of getting people to recognize that, no, in fact, weed will not turn you into a devil and force you to go out and rape women or whatever the fuck else, then I say do it.
I'll point out that marijuana legalization is itself such a trojan horse as well. Just as twenty years ago the mere legalization of marijuana nationally seemed hopeless, right now the full legalization of all psychoactives seems a bit far-fetched. Yet, observing the effects of marijuana legalization (i.e. basically nothing at all happens) will help drive home the lesson that drugs are generally about as big a deal as you want them to be, and not one bit more.