Decriminalizing them removes the money and therefore removes the weapons.
But if you like having drug cartels with more weapons than their governments, you got it.
“My assertion was that making drugs illegal makes them so lucrative that the criminals who deal in them literally wind up with more money for weapons than their governments. “
Decriminalizing lowers the cost of drugs but not the profit margins. Dealers will be able to sell more drugs with lower prices and make more money.
“But if you like having drug cartels with more weapons than their governments, you got it.”
Along with:
Millions of otherwise law-abiding Americans in jail, meaning they consume taxes rather than pay them.
Hundreds of billions of dollars absolutely and completely wasted, adding to our current deficit woes.
Confiscation of private property AS A GOVERNMENT PROFIT CENTER over the thinnest excuses.
“No knock” raids that regularly kill innocent people and pets.
An almost unlimited expansion of American authoritarianism along with continual erosion of privacy and civil rights.
It boggles my mind that so few see the “solution” is far worse than the “problem”. Prosecute people for crimes that affect others, not personal choices. Continue to expand personal carry so people can defend themselves instead of relying on a “never there when you need ‘em” police force. And above all, educate people on the actual, proven risks of drugs instead of over-the-top propaganda that knowledgeable people laugh at.