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Comment by dave_sullivan | Hacker News Reader

>> Keeping drugs under ground and in the shadows funds Mexican drug cartels and puts the lives of millions at risk

>> I'm still against legalizing the worst drugs like meth and heroin...

These statements are incompatible. The "worst" drugs are all sold in massive quantity by drug dealers. Psychedelics afaik have never been a big money maker. If you want to essentially defund businesses that settle disputes with chainsaws, vats of acid, and the taped torture deaths of your friends and family, you'll need to legalize the use and sale of all the drugs.

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A majority of the drug cartels' profits come from one drug - marijuana[1] - which is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco. Legalizing pot alone would hurt these guys immensely.

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/02/us.mexico.marij...

I doubt Mexican drug cartels will suddenly become any nicer when confronted with competition from legal businesses. Whatever they are doing now, what's going to stop them from continuing to do it? Obviously not the police.

Why would it be terribly different than post-prohibition America? Or modern Vegas?

Lack of demand.

If a few owners of a legal pot shops end up in a vats of acid, demand might return quickly. I'm not stating that this will happen, I'm just sceptical of the idea that criminal organizations will just quit and go home just because we legalize the sale of drug X.

Did you ever see the Sopranos episode where they tried to shake down a Starbucks? The legal pot shop owners will eventually be CVS, Walgreens, etc. There's nobody to dip in acid.

I'd love to see Mexico and Colombia license all production to pharma/bio companies. These cartels are tough, but I can't imagine they'd survive long against, e.g. Monsanto. Lesser of two evils, but at least one is less violent and sorta civilized.

> The legal pot shop owners will eventually be CVS, Walgreens, etc.

I find your assuredness amazing. The truth of the matter is that nobody has the slightest idea how the legalization of cannabis is going to play out. The coming few years are going to be very interesting. Your prediction is that pot shops will end up on High Street. My prediction is that pot shops well end up in poor neighbourhoods.

I think we have a good idea since it's already in progress. Have you been to Denver? They're really everywhere. And they'e so far been operating under a cloud of uncertainty due to federal laws that will soon likely clear.

It's also been pseudo legal in California for a decade. Dispensary owners haven't been slaughtered, and cannabis is the biggest illegal drug market.

Americans won't tolerate people being dipped in vats of acid. You cannot compare our system of law enforcement to Mexico's, they're vastly different. Our police will stop that. We've dealt with exactly that sort of organized crime before. Alcohol was once controlled by violent criminals, as were casinos. There are a number of reasons why violent organized crime is able to take hold in an impoverished region like Mexico but won't here.

It is only the large profits enabled by the prohibition of drugs that enables them to conduct their business the way they do. Prohibition contributes to violence further by the fact that disputes cannot be settled through the courts.

Prices would come down to the point where maintaining what amounts to a private army wouldn't be cost-effective anymore.

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