jimmydanger wrote: There is every reason to believe that legalization would reduce the total imported to nearly negligible amounts. There is no evidence that this lost revenue for the cartels would be made up by importing other drugs such as cocaine and heroin..
Maybe...The actual war being fought is over corridors for traffic (transportation chains).
Cartels earn Revenues off the following: Aggregated
Herb :@ 60%
Kidnappings, CD Pirating, Heroin, Cocaine. @ 40%
(Also don't forget legitimate businesses)
When Pot gets legal, that doesn't mean that 60% of that trade goes away. It means that the US portion of that 60 percent goes away.
Lets assume 20% impact...There is still the corridor that feeds into Canadian markets, and European Via East coast...
Pot quality is not an issue since Mexican cartels will simply kill off their competitors and take over the biz. Smoker's choice has no bearing really.
Lets say the impact was 60%... They would still be able to enter the market as legitamet vendors... and still exercise evil leverage to make their quotas...
There is no evidence to support impact by virtue of legalization; Cocain will rise to be the new priesthood. Keep in mind, the wars is not about the drug, its about the corridor and sales territory. Seems to me legal or not , people will still die.
ATthe end of the day... If the world stopped consumming these drugs like it does, then the cartels will go away. Until the demand changes, they will always thrive. The choice is on the consumer, not the cartel, not the legislature
Links: NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magaz ... wanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/opini ... gmire.html