4 ms·

There's a significant difference between busting people for dropping acid or growing some weed in their backyard and busting people for trafficking large amount

There's a significant difference between busting people for dropping acid or growing some weed in their backyard and busting people for trafficking large amounts of cocaine on behalf of an international drug cartel.

betterunix 14y ago
There would be no international drug cartels if drugs were legal and regulated.
- TheCoelacanth 14y ago
  That might help but being legal doesn't completely stop cartels. Oil is legal and yet OPEC still exists.
  - tobinfricke 14y ago
    Another example: Maple syrup is legal and yet FPAQ exists.
  - betterunix 14y ago
    Oil is different in that it is not something one produces, but rather something that one simply finds. Drugs are produced by farming or chemical processes (or some combination), and most popular drugs can be produced at very low cost.
  - ucee054 14y ago
    You destroy meaning if you confuse the two different usages of the word. When describing drug cartels, "cartel" means "mafia" When describing the oil cartel, "cartel" means "monopolistic syndicate" There is no comparison between OPEC and Los Zetas. You shouldn't have even brought OPEC into this.
    - lostlogin 14y ago
      Maybe not OPEC, but reading about oil companies behaviour in places like Nigeria and the similarities with Los Zetas are there all right.
      - ptaipale 14y ago
        No, not quite.
        lostlogin 14y ago
        http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5408-how_shell_connived_with_corrupt_officials.html http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5408-how_shell_connived_w... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-papers-show-how-shell-targeted-nigeria-oil-protests-1704812.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-pape... Bribery, corruption and human rights abuses. How is this not Los Zetas style?
- DanBC 14y ago
  Cigarettes are legal and regulated, yet vast amounts are smuggled into the UK from France, and very many cigarettes in the UK are counterfeit.
  - mahyarm 14y ago
    Yet is there an international, violent, criminal cigarette mafia? No. It's the level of Canadians not declaring their cheaper shopping goods from the USA when they cross the border to avoid tax.
    - jat850 14y ago
      That's naive. Where there is profit margin, there is crime. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-02-atf-cigarette-smuggling.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-02-atf-ci... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggling-mokhtar-belmokhtar-terrorism http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggl...
      - peterjancelis 14y ago
        Correction: When the government uses the threat of force to ensure their cut on peaceful transactions, crime arises.
    - DanBC 14y ago
      It's nowhere near as serious as the Mexican Narco gangs. No one is being dissolved in vats of lye for smuggled cigarettes. But it is more serious than Joe Sixpack bringing in a few extra undeclared bottles of whisky. Cigarettes are legal and regulated, but high tax, and it is the high tax that causes smuggling and counterfeiting. Real cigarettes used to be exported from the UK, (thus avoiding UK duties) and then smuggled back in (again, to avoid the duty). The outward flow was stopped, but that means that counterfeiters stepped in. Now there's a more dangerous product, with less regulation, being smuggled in to the UK. Criminal gangs are involved in the production and distribution of counterfeit cigarettes. Raids on distribution find amounts in the order of ten million cigarettes. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20297912 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20297912)

betterunix 14y ago

There would be no international drug cartels if drugs were legal and regulated.

TheCoelacanth 14y ago
That might help but being legal doesn't completely stop cartels. Oil is legal and yet OPEC still exists.
- tobinfricke 14y ago
  Another example: Maple syrup is legal and yet FPAQ exists.
- betterunix 14y ago
  Oil is different in that it is not something one produces, but rather something that one simply finds. Drugs are produced by farming or chemical processes (or some combination), and most popular drugs can be produced at very low cost.
- ucee054 14y ago
  You destroy meaning if you confuse the two different usages of the word. When describing drug cartels, "cartel" means "mafia" When describing the oil cartel, "cartel" means "monopolistic syndicate" There is no comparison between OPEC and Los Zetas. You shouldn't have even brought OPEC into this.
  - lostlogin 14y ago
    Maybe not OPEC, but reading about oil companies behaviour in places like Nigeria and the similarities with Los Zetas are there all right.
    - ptaipale 14y ago
      No, not quite.
      - lostlogin 14y ago
        http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5408-how_shell_connived_with_corrupt_officials.html http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5408-how_shell_connived_w... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-papers-show-how-shell-targeted-nigeria-oil-protests-1704812.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-pape... Bribery, corruption and human rights abuses. How is this not Los Zetas style?
DanBC 14y ago
Cigarettes are legal and regulated, yet vast amounts are smuggled into the UK from France, and very many cigarettes in the UK are counterfeit.
- mahyarm 14y ago
  Yet is there an international, violent, criminal cigarette mafia? No. It's the level of Canadians not declaring their cheaper shopping goods from the USA when they cross the border to avoid tax.
  - jat850 14y ago
    That's naive. Where there is profit margin, there is crime. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-02-atf-cigarette-smuggling.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-02-atf-ci... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggling-mokhtar-belmokhtar-terrorism http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggl...
    - peterjancelis 14y ago
      Correction: When the government uses the threat of force to ensure their cut on peaceful transactions, crime arises.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    It's nowhere near as serious as the Mexican Narco gangs. No one is being dissolved in vats of lye for smuggled cigarettes. But it is more serious than Joe Sixpack bringing in a few extra undeclared bottles of whisky. Cigarettes are legal and regulated, but high tax, and it is the high tax that causes smuggling and counterfeiting. Real cigarettes used to be exported from the UK, (thus avoiding UK duties) and then smuggled back in (again, to avoid the duty). The outward flow was stopped, but that means that counterfeiters stepped in. Now there's a more dangerous product, with less regulation, being smuggled in to the UK. Criminal gangs are involved in the production and distribution of counterfeit cigarettes. Raids on distribution find amounts in the order of ten million cigarettes. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20297912 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20297912)