I’m ambivalent about dsstigmatizing drugs. I’m also ambivalent or worse about the “war on drugs”. Neither has a good side.
What does worry me greatly about this is the selling point. Legalize pot and all the criminality associated with pot will disappear. I’m sure it will in the short run.
What I see happening in short order, if marijuana is legalized, is that all the land in Mexico and further south used to grow pot, will become worthless to the narcos. In no time this crop will be scrapped in favor of cocaine and heroine.
Then, we’ll have a great chance to see how much law and order is restored.
That is a good point. I don’t know if it’s so much the case that legalization is the answer to all the associated problems, but I think it is time we at least do a more fundamental reassessment of the strategies currently being used.
I don’t think drug use has been increasing by any significant degree, but we’ve had increasing problems with drug-related violence.
This violence, however, is associated with illegal immigration as well, and it’s hard to draw a line between the two problems.
Mexico does not produce cocaine and they only produce a small amount of heroin. They do, however, buy cocaine from South America and smuggle it into this country and distribute it. The government estimates that Mexicans smuggle in and distributed about 90% of the cocaine consumed in this country and more than 80% of the meth and heroin. They already supply most all the demand for these drugs in this country, so they can't exactly just switch to selling these drugs if we take marijuana from them. There's not much upside left in the market for those drugs.