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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

#21

Post by [deleted] »

cnp wrote: post #17
anon987 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Prescription opiates

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Alcohol, that great destroyer of worlds, marriages, cultures, physical health and particularly the brain, time (hangovers, boredom), coping strategies (emotional pain), real pain (coping strategies), poor decision making (you know it), and so on. Start here, and come into it with a few entrenched problems, and sure enough you'll find yourself elsewh…

[deleted]

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

#22

Post by lips »

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…

The article fails to put the timeline of meth-centric US laws into perspective. i.e. restrictions on meth ingredient purchasing, the move from large US production facilities to imports to small homebrew operations. This isn't a particular area of interest to me, but to discuss law/supply/demand issues of marijuana, and then to casually toss in increases in meth and heroin without the same analysis of contributing factors is not truly informative.

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

#23

Post by rhizome »

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…

Are you talking about consumers...or dealers? The gateway is supply-side, and decriminalizing and medicalizing drug abuse takes away all of their profit motive. Make pot legal, they'll move to other high profit drugs because that's what their suppliers will have. Legalization cuts off that entire miserable supply chain.

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

#24

Post by jacobolus »

cnp wrote: post #17
anon987 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Prescription opiates

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Alcohol, that great destroyer of worlds, marriages, cultures, physical health and particularly the brain, time (hangovers, boredom), coping strategies (emotional pain), real pain (coping strategies), poor decision making (you know it), and so on. Start here, and come into it with a few entrenched problems, and sure enough you'll find yourself elsewh…

Alcohol, in small doses (0.5–2 drinks) is a pretty good anxiolytic.

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

#25

Post by doyoulikeworms »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8
leeoniya wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Pot isn't a terrible substance. Especially not when compared to alcohol.

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

#27

Post by jacobolus »

dominotw wrote: post #9
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?

Absolutely, a regulated market would be better than a black market.

If every gun and every bullet were marked, all sales (or losses e.g. to theft) required registration with a central registry with the new owner requiring a proper license (including criminal background check, etc.), and distributors/manufacturers/registered owners were held liable for damages in the case of improper use, and with potential for their ownership/distribution license to be revoked, guns would become a lot safer. (Exactly what breakdown of liability is up for debate, but currently there is none whatsoever.)

Almost nobody has a problem with “gun ownership” in the abstract, and some type of gun ownership is legal in most parts of the world. The problems are with e.g. semiautomatic rifles being purchased on the black market and then used to shoot up schools, criminals trivially and untraceably getting their hands on as many guns as they want, people leaving guns lying around in places where children can play with them, or huge numbers of untraceable guns getting smuggled across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

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

#28

Post by stevesearer »

thatswrong0 wrote: post #13
anon987 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Prescription opiates

They're not just gateway drugs, but also a huge problem in and of themselves. I have a friend who went to rehab for heroin and he said most of the people there were addicted to oxycodone, not heroin. Opiates are not to be trifled with, yet some doctors are more than willing to throw them at people. My other friend was prescribed Norco for a sore throat >:(

I recently burned my hands with bacon grease while cooking which was a painful experience and was prescribed Norco. The pain was pretty much gone in the morning ~12 hours later and I had only taken one dose (which made me feel terrible, btw) and didn't take any more. I imagine many people just take the dosage until the prescription is gone.

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

#29

Post by jonknee »

stevesearer wrote: post #28
thatswrong0 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not just gateway drugs, but also a huge problem in and of themselves. I have a friend who went to rehab for heroin and he said most of the people there were addicted to oxycodone, not heroin. Opiates are not to be trifled with, yet some doctors are more than willing to throw them at people. My other friend was prescribed Norco for a sore throat >:(

I recently burned my hands with bacon grease while cooking which was a painful experience and was prescribed Norco. The pain was pretty much gone in the morning ~12 hours later and I had only taken one dose (which made me feel terrible, btw) and didn't take any more. I imagine many people just take the dosage until the prescription is gone.

> I imagine many people just take the dosage until the prescription is gone.

Or more than the dose and then buy it on the street after they run out. After that gets too expensive they figure out heroin is the same rush.

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

#30

Post by jessaustin »

anon987 wrote: post #11
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…

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Prescription opiates

Here's to hoping people realize that the whole concept of "gateway drug" is horseshit. Human beings exhibit a wide range of behaviors following the use of any substance, that usually have much more to do with the humans and with their environment than with the substance.
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