It is indeed a large portion of good old fashioned planting-head-in-sand, and try to ignore expert opinion for as long as you can. However, assassinations are g

It is indeed a large portion of good old fashioned planting-head-in-sand, and try to ignore expert opinion for as long as you can. However, assassinations are getting more brazen every year, entanglements with local government officials too, so the problem is getting harder and harder to accept. The NRC article with insights from the Italian anti-Mafia force gives a very chilling insight. The problem isn't marijuana, the problem is the types that are sourcing it here for export, and the enormous scale of domestic synthetics production (of which also most is exported). You can't have expect to have normal friendly businessmen trade in drugs which are forbidden in the rest of the world.