If you want to know whether legalizing vice will eliminate the criminal participation in that vice, look at prostitution in Amsterdam. The trade is legal, and it is still controled by criminals. Whether mind altering drugs in general or particular drugs should be legalized can be debated, and I haven’t settled on either position, but doing so to eliminate the criminal incentive for the drug trade is unlikely to work.
You take the super high profit out of a cheap product when it is legal.
The jail population would be cut in half, and the border patrol wouldn't waste time chasing bales of mj or kilos of coke.
Prior to 1904, all drugs in the US were legal and sold in "drug stores".
Did we have rampant groups of gangs killing each other trying to "control" drug stores?
Idiots that want to use drugs are going to, and the legalization of drugs won't eliminate all illegal acts, but it will eliminate the high profit that makes drug dealing rampant.
If you want to be a stoned zombie, have at it, people do it all the time with alcohol.
Do you think that alcohol prohibition will work?
Oh, we tried that, and got al capone and others like him.
We learned a lot from that experiment.
Apples & Oranges
Prostitution involves selling and trading people.
The criminal element there will always be present because the ‘product’ IS people. The product thinks, has feelings and doesn’t just sit there. The only way for the owners to control the ‘product’ and cut costs is threats and force. Criminals have the advantage in this business because they can essentially enslave people and sell a product that costs them almost nothing. Prostitution businesses run without force simply cannot compete.
Drugs are an object which can be grown or made in almost unlimited amounts.
Before being made illegal, many of the most dangerous drugs today such as cocaine, heroin, amphetamines were available over the counter at your local pharmacy.
If drugs were sold the same way today, criminals would not be able to compete and there would be no black market. Large legitimate drug companies with quality products and lower prices would put criminals out of business.
Just like the black market for alcohol has been virtually eliminated. There is a small black market due to high taxes but the quality does not compare to legitimate products.