Marijuana became the cartels' biggest revenue source for the first time in 2007, bringing in $8.5 billion. Cocaine came in second, at $3.9 billion, and methamphetamine earned $1 billion, a top U.S. drug policymaker told a group of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials last year.And let's suppose, from the same article, that this is accurate:
So far, the U.S. has largely been spared the violence seen in Mexico, where the cartels' running gunbattles with police, the military and each other claimed about 6,500 lives last year. It was a sharp spike from the 2,600 deaths attributed to cartel violence in 2007. Once again, drug war casualties are mounting on the Mexican side at a record pace in 2009 -- more than 1,000 during the first three months of the year, [DEA Agent Joseph] Arabit said.Would not the best way to stop the cash inflow to the cartels be to legalize the use of drugs? Back in the Age of Prohibition, there was no shortage of violence and corruption associated with the illegal trafficking of alcohol. But since the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933, other than maybe some moonshiners, we don't have alcohol distributors contesting their territories anymore with Chicago Typewriters and BARs.
When will this country smarten up and realize that the best way to deal with the drug cartels is to destroy their illegal market by making the stuff legal?
3 comments:
Hmmm! $13.4 billion in sales for the drug cartels vs. $40 billion of taxpayer's money to fund the War on (some) Drugs. You do the math.
It's not all for drug use prevention. Adding military weaponry and infusing the police departments with the idea that anyone who does not agree with the agenda is the enemy seems to be part of the program.
Bring it on Kalifornia. If only common sense would prevail just once. There can't even be a logical discussion on industrial hemp.
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