Do you think that the drug lords would just disband, quietly go get respectable jobs, and become law-abiding citizens, were drugs legalized? I suspect drugs are merely the target of opportunity, and there would just be a shift to a new lucrative, illegal, and violent line of business. I find the fight-crime-by-legalizing-whatever-criminals-do rationale a bit weak.
However, I do find merit in an honest discussion of jurisdiction (should the feds or the states decide whether to address the issue). Good luck getting the federal government to abide by anything in the Constitution these days. And, they have the interstate-trade catch-all that gives them total license.
When drugs are made legal again I’m sure they would look @ other criminal activities to go after since drugs wouldn’t be profitable to them anymore.
I myself don’t care what direction the states go re: drug policy. I would like to see 50 state policies that range from continued prohibition in conservative states to outright legalization in liberal states. The people should be free to decide this issue, by using their right to vote as well as their right to move to the states that suits their fancy on this issue. Just get the feds out of it (w/ the exception of protecting our borders)!
Well, they might have to go back to crimes in which their "victims" weren't quite so willing.
The cartels have already branched out into other illegal activities.¹ They are conglomerates of crime, and marijuana provides nearly 2/3 of their revenue according to the ONDCP.² Legalization would be a severe blow to the cartels.
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¹ The men and women who form part of this network likely number in the thousands. They operate a range of illicit businesses from the regular extortion of street vendors to charging other groups for passage through their territory, to gun and drug smuggling, human smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, money laundering and the operation of a vast network of illegal businesses.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?id=97554&lng=en
²John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said marijuana, not heroin or cocaine, is the "bread and butter," "the center of gravity" for Mexican drug cartels that every year smuggle tons of it through the porous U.S.-Mexico border. Of the $13.8 billion that Americans contributed to Mexican drug traffickers in 2004-05, about 62 percent, or $8.6 billion, comes from marijuana consumption.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022208dnintdrugs.3a98bb0.html