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.
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.
“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?
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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.