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What makes you believe that legalizing drugs would automatically cause the cartels to stop doing what they do? Instead of being smugglers they'll be tax evaders

What makes you believe that legalizing drugs would automatically cause the cartels to stop doing what they do? Instead of being smugglers they'll be tax evaders; they won't stop overnight, if at all. In general, in poorer countries there will always be an incentive to get rich by illegal means, simply because there's not much else. Also, you could hypothesize that, conversely, the subs builders would re-purpose them for more nefarious ends if the drug smuggling incentive is taken away.

pyre 14y ago
The thought is that legal suppliers of drugs should be able to undercut illegal suppliers. The illegal suppliers are in a high-risk / high-reward business. The prices are high because the risk is high.
SoftwareMaven 14y ago
..the subs builders would re-purpose them for more nefarious ends if the drug smuggling incentive is taken away. I suppose the subs could be sold "on the cheap" if the cartel business went away. There is probably some danger there, but probably not as much danger as 1) a lot more of these getting built and 2) the US strengthening its police state to protect us from these subs. The second is my real concern. Our rights have already been ludicrously eroded anywhere near a border. I really don't want added to that "anywhere near a waterway that can be reached by ocean." I guess that those of us in northern Utah and Nevada would be OK, since our water goes into the Great Salt Lake. I'll tolerate some risk of a terror attack that I'm less likely to be involved in a terror attack than I am to drown in my bathtub[1] rather than the degradation of my civil liberties that the police state engenders. 1. http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terrorism-should http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terroris... (using the numbers that assume attacks would have succeeded if we weren't in the semi-police state we are)

pyre 14y ago

The thought is that legal suppliers of drugs should be able to undercut illegal suppliers. The illegal suppliers are in a high-risk / high-reward business. The prices are high because the risk is high.

SoftwareMaven 14y ago

..the subs builders would re-purpose them for more nefarious ends if the drug smuggling incentive is taken away. I suppose the subs could be sold "on the cheap" if the cartel business went away. There is probably some danger there, but probably not as much danger as 1) a lot more of these getting built and 2) the US strengthening its police state to protect us from these subs. The second is my real concern. Our rights have already been ludicrously eroded anywhere near a border. I really don't want added to that "anywhere near a waterway that can be reached by ocean." I guess that those of us in northern Utah and Nevada would be OK, since our water goes into the Great Salt Lake. I'll tolerate some risk of a terror attack that I'm less likely to be involved in a terror attack than I am to drown in my bathtub[1] rather than the degradation of my civil liberties that the police state engenders. 1. http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terrorism-should http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/06/how-scared-of-terroris... (using the numbers that assume attacks would have succeeded if we weren't in the semi-police state we are)