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Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

marginalrevolution.com

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Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#31

Post by olivermarks »

No....

'The Sinaloa cartel can buy a kilo of cocaine in the highlands of Colombia or Peru for around $2,000, then watch it accrue value as it makes its way to market. In Mexico, that kilo fetches more than $10,000. Jump the border to the United States, and it could sell wholesale for $30,000. Break it down into grams to distribute retail, and that same kilo sells for upward of $100,000 — more than its weight in gold. And that’s just cocaine. Alone among the Mexican cartels, Sinaloa is both diversified and vertically integrated, producing and exporting marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine as well.' http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-dru...

and that was in 2012...

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#32

Post by DoreenMichele »

jzig wrote: post #28
Symmetry wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they're truly profit-maximizing they're already exploiting other drugs, guns, smuggling, "coyotes", or legitimate enterprise as hard as they can already and we should expect them to lose money if one of the markets they work in goes away.

What is a coyote?

Presumably:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyotaje

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#34

Post by flyinghamster »

jzig wrote: post #28
Symmetry wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they're truly profit-maximizing they're already exploiting other drugs, guns, smuggling, "coyotes", or legitimate enterprise as hard as they can already and we should expect them to lose money if one of the markets they work in goes away.

What is a coyote?

Someone who smuggles would-be migrants across the border. This sometimes has horrific consequences like people suffocating in sweltering trucks or left to die in the desert.

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#35

Post by eikenberry »

olivermarks wrote: post #31

No.... 'The Sinaloa cartel can buy a kilo of cocaine in the highlands of Colombia or Peru for around $2,000, then watch it accrue value as it makes its way to market. In Mexico, that kilo fetches more than $10,000. Jump the border to the United States, and it could sell wholesale for $30,000. Break it down into grams to distribute retail, and that same kilo sells for upward of $100,000 — more than its weight in gold.…

That doesn't compare it to Pot sales. They might get good margins on cocaine but what proportion of their profits is what would matter here. That is they could be making even better margins on cocaine than that today, but if 90% of their profits come from marijuana sales...

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#36

Post by RickHull »

eric_h wrote: post #22
sigstoat wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is what unfettered capitalism (anarcho-capitalism) looks like. I like capitalism, generally, but divorcing morality (or, alternatively, failing to separate socially-contracted power to coerce action) from economic gain results in the violence and brutality. no. the cartels are what you get when you actively block organizations that are serving huge needs (recreational drugs), from access to peaceful means of c…

> no. the cartels are what you get when you actively block organizations that are serving huge needs (recreational drugs), from access to peaceful means of conflict resolution and contract enforcement. That’s how cartels get power in the first place, but once they’re there, they’re in the business of preserving revenue streams and territory and thus power. Once they’re large enough, their raison d’être is no longer s…

> That’s how cartels get power in the first place, but once they’re there, they’re in the business of preserving revenue streams and territory and thus power.

An anarchocapitalist would note that this is straight out of the statist playbook. What distinguishes cartels from roving bandits that pivot to stationary? It's hard to lay the blame for this on capitalism per se.

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#37

Post by Donzo »

jedberg wrote: post #26
Donzo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all seriousness, I greatly appreciate corrections like this in a way that so few people do.

Technically your "that" is superfluous. ;) > In all seriousness, I greatly appreciate corrections like this in a way so few people do.

I upvoted you.

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#38

Post by Spooky23 »

sigstoat wrote: post #12
tomrod wrote: post #10

The "Drug Trafficking Organizations" are the cartels. It is important to remember they don't exist to traffic drugs, they exist for the top leader(s) to obtain and maintain power, like a state-in-waiting. As other activities become more profitable, they switch over to those. Marijuana loses its profitability, they can switch to other drugs, guns, smuggling, "coyotes", or legitimate enterprise. This is what unfettered…

> This is what unfettered capitalism (anarcho-capitalism) looks like. I like capitalism, generally, but divorcing morality (or, alternatively, failing to separate socially-contracted power to coerce action) from economic gain results in the violence and brutality. no. the cartels are what you get when you actively block organizations that are serving huge needs (recreational drugs), from access to peaceful means of c…

How do you explain the historical abuses of power and nasty behavior of the companies that produce things like bananas and pineapples?

Re: Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations?

#39

Post by sunyata »

snarfy wrote: post #33

Northwest Cannabis Solutions, one of the largest cannabis growers in Washington State, is run by the Russian Mafia. I'm not sure about Mexican cartels, but legalization certainly hasn't stop organized crime involvement.

Do you have a citation for that? Ive been to a shop or two that felt a little sketchy but this interests me.
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