Like I said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. A Spanish saying goes (sort of) like this: "You give opinions about the fair depending on how you fare on it".
I think I made it clear that my point of view is not that of an American citizen discussing why he or she would legalize marijuana. My point of view is that of a person who would have no say in the matter, but would feel its effects. Ultimately, what I say or not say regarding this issue will not matter. I don't vote in the United States.
Sabastious, I don't think you're immoral, and I don't think you're claiming any higher morals either. English being my second language, I may sometimes not make myself understood. I wasn't talking about your own personal morals. But I would question the morals of someone who thinks that his smoking a joint, at this time, does not have any criminal consequences elsewhere. I would also question this person's sense of responsibility. Forgive me, but I don't think that anyone who is only wanting to get high stops to think for a while about the questionable characters and means whereby the drug reaches him.
By the way, this is not a one-sided thing for me. I also question the morals of the small farmer who works picking coca leaves, for example. He knows full well what the leaves will be used for. I also question the morals of the man who sends the drug to the United States and thinks that, after all, they want the drug and he is just "meeting a need". Whatever drug it is.
What happened: I was not talking about "any" street vendor. Please bear with me.
My general point, and I hope this time I make it clear, is that, when the legalization of marijuana is discussed, people are deluded into thinking that they will be taking business away from the bad guys who are currently running it. In my humble opinion, if you have a business that gives you lots and lots and lots of money, and you see someone trying to take it away from you, you won't just wait and see how the money goes elsewhere. You will try to keep that business in your hands; and if you're used to extorting, and killing, and kidnapping, you will certainly use those means to fight the competition.
My point was also that the people who currently run the marijuana business have other businesses, namely cocaine, designer drugs, prostitution, extorting people who want to enter the United States illegally, killing them after they have drained their every cent, kidnapping. The legalization of marijuana will only give them freedom to operate as a legally established operation while they maintain their other businesses. Sorry, but I would think anyone would see that.
They are already extorting businesses in Central America. That is where the street vendor comes in, What Happened. Not "EVERY" street vendor. But some "nice" women whose real role is to keep an eye on legally established businesses which are undergoing extortion, in case the owner has such funny ideas as closing the shop or calling the Police.
In Guatemala and El Salvador, if you drive a bus and you refuse to pay "the fee", you're dead, man. That is the reality. And the legalization of marijuana will give THAT PEOPLE a legal business from which they will derive money to fund their "other" activities, which, by the way, you guys do not bear.
As to dispensaries, they can be opened, all right, to legally dispense marijuana to sick people. Or to people who just want to use it for their recreation after its use is approved. And who says that the bad guys can't extort those dispensaries and take control of them? That is what I said. I never said that dispensaries are fronts for anything. I did say that they WOULD become fronts. Sorry; I don't think traffickers would just do nothing and just would let the business be taken away from them.
Suppose, for a second, that I am a drug dealer and I sell ecstasy and coke. I notice that marijuana becomes legal, and I expect some of my customers to use marijuana instead of a drug that would send them to jail. Meaning I would make less money. Would I fight against that? Would I try to go where the money were?
Let me point out that many advocates of the legalization of marijuana claim that the war on drugs "can't" be won. That means that the Police can't win against those guys. So, I don't want to hear that the Police would control that.
I think that the point I am making is a simple one. If someone smokes marijuana in his own home, that is hardly my business. But, if legalizing his habit results in my having to coexist with such criminals, then I am concerned. Not that my opinion matters, right?
