El Paso Mayor Vetoes Resolution Asking for Debate on Legalizing Drugs

walkin' trails @ 1/10/2009 8:00 AM

If the U.S. government were to legalize, regulate, and tax illegal drugs, I just can't see any of the existing world drug cartels trading assault rifles and machetes for business suits and respectability (and don't think they'd be anymore willing to roll over and let legal operations take over than they are now, i.e. Mexico's current situation). There is no way a jungle cocaine or heroin, or domestic meth lab will ever meet FDA standards. To bring such labs up to U.S. standards would eat too much into their profits. Nor can I see Mexican marijuana (or home grown ditchweed) competing with the quality of weed produced in indoor grows or other high THC yield crops grown to meet the standards of a legal U.S. market where "consumers" are going to demand the "good stuff" for their money. The end of Prohibition in the U.S. didn't end bootlegging, and the legalization of drugs will not bring an end to drug trafficking.