Sabastious, I understand the logic. My concern is about how it would be possible to prevent drug gangs from taking control of the sale of marijuana.
I'm currently reading this book:
El Cartel de Sinaloa: Un Historia del Uso Politico del Narco
http://www.amazon.com/El-Cartel-Sinaloa-Historia-Politico/dp/0307393305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324962444&sr=8-1
(The Sinaloa Cartel: The history of the political use of trafficking in drugs)
This book is in Spanish, so I don't expect most people on this forum to read it. Its author is a Mexican journalist who claims the current Mexican war on drugs is just a president with a legitimacy crisis trying to play the hero so he will get the recognition he craves. I disagree with that, but one thing about this book is that it addresses the multinational drug problem with Mexican eyes. The drug problem can be seen from different points of view.
I am in chapter 2 of that book.
The author says that Mexican drug gangs have been hit by the availability of designer drugs. They started as sellers of poppies, then marijuana, then cocaine. But designer drugs are -of course- other ways to get high, and they compete for the customer's money. Their profits have been reduced not because their sale prices or volumes have gone down, but because it doesn't make as much sense to to smuggle more drug into traditional consumer countries if it won't get sold anyways. So, now they are also selling locally.
My point here is that these guys do know business. They don't do what they do because they are fools.
And what does that have to do with the legalization of marijuana?
Seen from "south of the border", whatever arguments there can be about whether marijuana is just a plant or not, whether it's not damaging or not, marijuana is business, and it would continue to be a business if it were legal. I haven't discussed whether marijuana is good or bad. I just said that legalizing it will not mean there will be less crime.
The business is currently in the hands of the gangs. They will not give up that business if it's profitable enough. And, because it would be legal, at whatever prices you had it, then they would still be "in business". You could think that some of them would get away with selling marijuana.
Let me make the point very simple. Al Capone may have died broke, but, did the mob disappear with the Prohibition?
I can already hear the rumble of people saying that booze became less of a problem, et cetera, but I also hope that they will recognize that the mob did not disappear.
Drug gangs will not disappear with the legalization of marijuana. They will just "diversify their product mix", which will, in my opinion, still include marijuana.
One more thing. Suppose that Mexico decided to decriminalize cocaine. It's just a plant anyways, one with a long history of use in the Andes. What would happen in the United States if Colombian and Mexican gangs were absolutely free to take their product all the way to the border? No need for gang members to hide, or dig tunnels, or use secret compartments in planes, nothing. It would create formal jobs all the way from Colombia to the border. It could be taxed to finance education and food. It would give financial sense to be a farmer. Why bother with beans or fruits or even coffee if cocaine became a legal cash crop?
I believe most Americans wouldn't like such a thing. It would create a huge problem. Well, this is what I have been trying to say, only with eyes "south of the border". The legalization of marijuana will make it harder for countries south of the border to control other drugs. Why would a Mexican or Guatemalan policeman risk his life trying to stop cocaine from reaching the United States, say, if the destination country could make it legal anyways? Why not just take the money?
Please notice that I haven't discussed the medicinal properties of marijuana or whatever. Maybe my point of view is lacking in the sense that I am not considering those points. But I wish that people with serious interest in the matter would entertain an alternative point of view.
