7 ms·

"but it has turned large swaths of Mexico, particularly, into war zones" Legalizing drugs will not fix the problem. The cartels run the government now. Do yo

"but it has turned large swaths of Mexico, particularly, into war zones" Legalizing drugs will not fix the problem. The cartels run the government now. Do you actually think they will just pick up their things and go home? The violence will continue and they will move onto the next, illegal, lucrative product to sell. The US in the 1930s had the same problem. It was only stopped by stamping out corruption and outright the murdering of criminals. I don't see Mexico having even a small handle on corruption in the next 50 years. The Opioid crisis is going on right now..and this is with legal drugs. Drug companies are being sued for millions and millions of dollars. From one side, I'm told legal adults should be able to do what they want with their bodies. From the other, when bad things happen..like addiction, I'm told it's the fault of the company that made and sold the drugs. This doesn't make any real sense if we are trying to legalize drugs. It will only increase costs as the result of liability insurance and other risks that are now involved. Legalizing MJ in California is turning into a failure. The problem is that companies that sell legal drugs need to pay taxes and go through many more regulations than the guy down the street selling it. The end result is higher costs for legal drugs. Legal drug companies selling MJ are being put out of business because the black market is thriving as a result of lower costs and better availability (which will always happen with black markets). The legal market is only helping the black market because there are many people that are using MJ now that otherwise wouldn't have when it was illegal. When the legalization of MJ was proposed, the proponents (including many people here on HN) said that there would be no black market after it was legalized. This never made sense to me and now I'm being proven correct. The black market is not only there, it's thriving.

theslurmmustflo 7y ago
What are you talking about? Your arguments are all over the place. How exactly would legalization hurt Mexico? Look at Portugal to see how we should all move towards dealing with drugs and addiction as a health problem instead of a criminal problem. The violence in the 1930s WAS caused by the prohibition, sure it had lasting effects but ending prohibition was still the right move. Can you cite the rise of black market marijuana in California? The market is doing well and bringing in good tax revenue in every state I've read about. As for the opioid crisis, the issue wasn't that people one day decided they wanted to get hooked on them. The issue was they had pain or were recovering from a surgery and were being prescribed highly addictive medication that was being pushed by pharmaceutical companies without proper warning or care. Marijuana could have been given in these cases and it without the same problems of addiction.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-l... First search result in Google. Black market for pot growing in CA at the expense of the legalized market. The violence in the 1930s WAS caused by the prohibition, sure it had lasting effects but ending prohibition was still the right move. No, the violence was caused by criminals funded themselves primarily by breaking prohibition laws. If violence was caused by prohibition, Utah would have been the most violent state in the nation for most of its history, since prohibition was the law in most of Utah for most of its history. It still is the law in parts of Utah.
  - tyingq 7y ago
    Utah is a somewhat oddball case to cite as evidence around prohibition. They are 60+% Mormon, with a strong religious directive not to drink.
    - gamblor956 7y ago
      Right, and my point was that it was the people that were responsible for the violence, not prohibition. After all, marijuana was technically subject to prohibition until quite recently, and yet the very lucrative pot market was not marred by violence.
      - theslurmmustflo 7y ago
        Theres been plenty of violence due to marijuana prohibition! Never mind all the human misery from incarseration.
  - UncleEntity 7y ago
    > Black market for pot growing in CA at the expense of the legalized market. The amount of regulation pretty much guaranteed a "market failure" for legal pot. Almost like that was the intended outcome...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
gefh 7y ago
I'm pro-legalization but you bring up good points about the opioid epidemic. Legalization shouldn't mean zero regulation. Legal marijuana seems to be doing well in WA right now though.

theslurmmustflo 7y ago

What are you talking about? Your arguments are all over the place. How exactly would legalization hurt Mexico? Look at Portugal to see how we should all move towards dealing with drugs and addiction as a health problem instead of a criminal problem. The violence in the 1930s WAS caused by the prohibition, sure it had lasting effects but ending prohibition was still the right move. Can you cite the rise of black market marijuana in California? The market is doing well and bringing in good tax revenue in every state I've read about. As for the opioid crisis, the issue wasn't that people one day decided they wanted to get hooked on them. The issue was they had pain or were recovering from a surgery and were being prescribed highly addictive medication that was being pushed by pharmaceutical companies without proper warning or care. Marijuana could have been given in these cases and it without the same problems of addiction.

gamblor956 7y ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-l... First search result in Google. Black market for pot growing in CA at the expense of the legalized market. The violence in the 1930s WAS caused by the prohibition, sure it had lasting effects but ending prohibition was still the right move. No, the violence was caused by criminals funded themselves primarily by breaking prohibition laws. If violence was caused by prohibition, Utah would have been the most violent state in the nation for most of its history, since prohibition was the law in most of Utah for most of its history. It still is the law in parts of Utah.
- tyingq 7y ago
  Utah is a somewhat oddball case to cite as evidence around prohibition. They are 60+% Mormon, with a strong religious directive not to drink.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    Right, and my point was that it was the people that were responsible for the violence, not prohibition. After all, marijuana was technically subject to prohibition until quite recently, and yet the very lucrative pot market was not marred by violence.
    - theslurmmustflo 7y ago
      Theres been plenty of violence due to marijuana prohibition! Never mind all the human misery from incarseration.
- UncleEntity 7y ago
  > Black market for pot growing in CA at the expense of the legalized market. The amount of regulation pretty much guaranteed a "market failure" for legal pot. Almost like that was the intended outcome...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

gefh 7y ago

I'm pro-legalization but you bring up good points about the opioid epidemic. Legalization shouldn't mean zero regulation. Legal marijuana seems to be doing well in WA right now though.