[Viennacon]

That’s something nobody ever considers. You take away 70% of profit from these criminal organizations, do you honestly think they’ll give it up and get a legitimate job? No. Drugs are not the only way to make money on the black market, and these guys will compensate for lost profit by accelerating human trafficking, weapons smuggling and such. That’s what worries me. These thugs have already showed what they’re capable of, and they essentially control Mexico today.

This will never happen anyway. Big Tobacco and Liquor won’t allow it to cut in on their slice of the substance market.

[USNBandit]

Mexico is a trans shipper of a majority of the coke that hits America. They also took over the meth trade as America cracked down on precursors. Lately, my area has seen a re-emergence of Mexican tar heroin. I don't know if that is a product of true demand or the cartels taking over American interstate drug trafficking.

By and large weed is their biggest commodity so legalizing a domestic supply will put a big squeeze on them. They will still have hard drugs to smuggle and fight over.

It is very rare that we can have a discussion on this topic without the invective. It is a serious topic with lots of permutations.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

You take away 70% of profit from these criminal organizations, do you honestly think they’ll give it up and get a legitimate job? No. Drugs are not the only way to make money on the black market, and these guys will compensate for lost profit by accelerating human trafficking, weapons smuggling and such.

Cartels can't by fiat create a demand for those goods. And real crimes with actual victims can't offer the same astronomical profit margins as victimless 'crimes' like drug selling.