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 ...
Anyone who is not an idiot knew this was going to happen.
It doesn’t work like that in real life.
In one study of more than 30 major U.S. cities during the Prohibition years of 1920 and 1921, the number of crimes increased by 24%. Additionally, theft and burglaries increased by 9%, homicides by 13%, assaults and battery rose by 13%, drug addiction by 45%, and police department costs rose by 11.4%. This was largely the result of "black-market violence" and the diversion of law enforcement resources elsewhere. Despite the Prohibition movement's hope that outlawing alcohol would reduce crime, the reality was that the Volstead Act led to higher crime rates than were experienced prior to Prohibition and the establishment of a black market dominated by criminal organizations.
https://archive.org/details/risefallofprohib00town/page/n7/mode/2up
Then a funny thing happened…crime declined.
Stop making invalid comparisons. You only look stupid doing so.
The data on the negative impact of alcohol is right there. I could do the same for the other vices listed. indeed, we have ample evidence of their destructive natures.
And yet, they remain available for anyone.
We could add pornography and other vices to that pile of Bad Things society permits.
The comparison is only invalid if the accuser is deploying a subjective/cherry-picking methodology.
The truth here, is drug criminalization has as much to do with saving lives as the prosecution of Trump has to do with upholding the law. In both cases, it’s about having power over others.
Told ya
cannabis seeds at mass market retailers
It’s the only way to stop the cartels.
Quotes:
What was initially thought of as a polio epidemic was soon seen as its own separate and confusing neuropathy, with otherwise healthy adults—mostly poor or African-American men—experiencing paralysis in their extremities.
“you can’t carry any lovin’ on.”
[even that one]
https://nogakhen.com/blog/the-tragedy-of-ginger-jake
“In 1930, 50,000 people became paralyzed” with “Jake Leg”.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2390711/
“There’s no way of knowing because SUCH ACTIVITY IS NOT TRACKED.”
They can estimate the market for illegal drugs. Why can’t they do it with illegal beer?
L
I’ve heard this explained as a taxation issue. That the state adds SO MUCH tax to the sale that the black market has set up a cheaper alternative.
I think everyone is overlooking something. There would be no drug trade legal or otherwise if it wasn’t for the people who make the stupid decision to use them.
Most excellent comment!
I’ve heard the same thing.
It seems accurate.
In the end the black market will undercut the states anyway.
They’ll find a way. Look at the street number gambling. They pay a little more than the state if you hit and they’ll extend credit.
The black market will find a way. IMO weed should not have been legalized as much as decriminalized. The states should not be selling rec drugs and people should not become criminals for using it.
I agree, but there's a big problem. Not with what you said but decriminalization.
Drugs are still illegal at the federal level. They have not been decriminalized.
Yet here we are with drugs and the cartels flooding our country, because the government that we're trusting with enforcing these laws is leaving our border wide open instead.
That what makes this WOD so laughable. If the federal government intended to stop this stuff from entering the country, they could have and they would have by enforcing their own laws.
Neither decriminalization and treatment nor the WOD is going to work until we change that.
Of course someone reply will be something along the lines of "How are we going to do that when both sides are selling us out?". I don't know, but as long as we're selling out by patronizing companies that are pushing this agenda and using illegal labor over Americans, it won't change.
It is not just the taxes—it is also the regulations.
The current version of “legalization” is a joke—a bureaucratic and taxation nightmare never proposed by libertarians anywhere.
It is like the joke about how the camel is a horse made by a committee.
The licenses to sell could have been cheap and easy—low barriers to entry.
The taxes could have been very low.
But—that is not the kleptocracy way.
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.