Posted on 06/21/2024 4:52:14 PM PDT by T Ruth
Six years after California legalized marijuana, the bodies keep piling up. Earlier this year, six men were murdered in the Mojave Desert. Four of the men had been burned after being shot with rifles. In 2020, seven people were killed at an illegal pot operation in Riverside County.
Violence like this was supposed to disappear after legalization. ...
California's legal drug revenues have fallen consistently, as have those in other legal drug states including Colorado, whose model helped sell the idea that drug money would fix everything.
***
Cartels and gang members dominate the business. And open borders allowed them to bring massive numbers of laborers to boost their ranks. Not only California, but places as far afield as Maine that have large open areas and limited law enforcement resources, have been overrun by drug operations that more closely resemble parts of Latin America and Asia than the USA.
The coasts, from Southern California up to Oregon, are controlled by Mexican cartels which have expanded so much that they're running short of workers even during the Biden open borders boom. Some have taken to brazenly advertising for illegal workers in Europe.
***
Drug legalization has failed on every level. The legal drug business is collapsing. MedMen, which once promised to be the Apple of weed, fell from a $3 billion valuation to a bankruptcy with $411 million in liabilities. Despite the green crosses and online apps, 80% of Californian's pot is still the old-fashioned illegal kind. Politicians may be boasting about hundreds of millions in revenue, but the cartels are making tens of billions and they're taking over entire forests.
***
Drug legalization increased homelessness and drug abuse. It boosted illegal migration and organized crime. It made life worse in every state and city where it's been tried ….
***
(Excerpt) Read more at gatestoneinstitute.org ...
Bring in the Chinese.
Average annual number of deaths from excessive alcohol use, including partially and fully alcohol-attributable conditions, increased approximately 29% from 137,927 during 2016–2017 to 178,307 during 2020–2021, and age-standardized death rates increased from approximately 38 to 48 per 100,000 population.
Average annual number of deaths from excessive alcohol use, including partially and fully alcohol-attributable conditions, increased approximately 29% from 137,927 during 2016–2017 to 178,307 during 2020–2021, and age-standardized death rates increased from approximately 38 to 48 per 100,000 population.
I never understood the irrational reasoning behind legalizing drugs to “put the cartels and drug dealers out of business.”
It doesn’t work like that in real life.
There will always be a black market competing with a “legitimate” market, because the legal market will always necessarily come with constraints that the black market doesn’t have to worry about.
What did they expect?
They also use a sh*t ton of water in often drought-plagued California.
And look at the problems with drug use and homelessness in the blue cities that provide for *safe* drug use.
Most of the federal drug legalization folks rest their belief on freedom and the Constitution.
The same human right to self-determination that stood athwart forced vaccination is the same right in this case.
Where in the Constitution is the state empowered to band pot etc? And before you say the Commerce Clause, remember it required an amendment to ban booze.
To argue for Leviathan to be empowered to ban drugs is to give a cheery two thumbs up to forced vaccination and forced euthanasia and other “your body are belong to us” sentiments. Welcome to North Korea.
They already are. In Maine. They’re the ones staffing the illegal grows in the Maine woods.
The Sevan Podcast 197 - Jorge Ventura - “Cartelville, USA” Documentary
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-8yTm1bNM9Q
We are thinking human beings with the Constitution in our hands. If we really are thinking, we'll severely curtail or ban destructive substances, especially when we have ample evidence of their destructive natures.
“There will always be a black market competing with a “legitimate” market, because the legal market will always necessarily come with constraints that the black market doesn’t have to worry about.”
How much black market beer is sold in the US?
L
Besides, it was our open borders that caused this problem, yet we want to trust the same government that left the borders open and allowed those drugs and cartels to come into the country to fight them.
There's no way of knowing because SUCH ACTIVITY IS NOT TRACKED. Duh!!!
Welcome to Narco America. 😑
If we really are thinking, we'll severely curtail or ban destructive substances, especially when we have ample evidence of their destructive natures.
Like alcohol.
And tobacco.
And sugary drinks.
And bacon.
Stop making invalid comparisons. You only look stupid doing so.
Substances which are dangerously mind- and behavior-altering are not even in the same universe as certain food items.
Regardless, my original post only posits that if you makes something legal that was previous illegal with high consequences as a cost, more people will indulge in it, not fewer as some brain-dead libertarians like to claim. That’s just basic economics. You lower the cost of an item, more is sold.
And yes, there will always be an illegitimate market for it. It doesn’t solve that problem.
Interesting except that they’ve been killing people over weed in Humboldt County for as long as i can remember.
Exactly!
it’s the same with all of the legalized gambling.
One thing though is the idea of weed kingpins is LOL.
There used to be insane mob violence and users being injured/dying of contaminated product during prohibition. Legalization with fair taxes soon eliminated that.
Yes there is still some moonshine in the poorest states but the taxes are reasonable enough where most people in the USA buy alcohol legally. Even though more expensive they prefer a regulated product so they dont risk death.
You rarely if ever hear about poisonings or gun battles over alcohol these days thanks to legalization and acceptable tax rates.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.