The Wall

[BananaStand]

@JKDS

Another thought is that legalizing drugs will probably lead to more R&D in the industry. Resulting in new and improved drugs that have less harmful effects, we may also inadvertently help the medical field with these discoveries.

Totally disagree.
What if your dream of R&D efforts producing a highly satisfying high without harmful effects came to fruition? How long would it take before people look for a better high? Four out of five heroin users start with prescription drugs, you know.

Suppose heroin became legal 20 years ago, and we've been living with it ever since. What are you going to do when the cartels develop fentanyl, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin? The import it illegally, hire gangs to distribute it, sell it cheap to eat up market share, and have the gangs police themselves using street violence.

You're right back where you started.

[Savy]

You're right back where you started.

Why would that problem be any different from the original one?

[BananaStand]

Why would that problem be any different from the original one?

It's not. That's my point. Legalizing drugs won't solve the problem.

[Savy]

It's not. That's my point. Legalizing drugs won't solve the problem.

No, the only problem is caused by the criminality of the substance. If it isn't illegal then none of what you said happens.

The negatives are the same for what we see with lots of other addictive substances that are legal. Things like being disorderly, committing crime to pay for things. It isn't a perfect solution by any means but the majority of arguments made against it start with the line drugs are bad and never budge.

[BananaStand]

No, the only problem is caused by the criminality of the substance. If it isn't illegal then none of what you said happens.

What are you not seeing here? In my example, drugs were legal.

Do you think that means that cartels and gangs just stop operating? Do they all go out and get 'real jobs'? Or will they look for a new way to fund their criminal enterprise? For example...develop, manufacture, and distribute a new drug.

[Savy]

What are you not seeing here? In my example, drugs were legal.

Do you think that means that cartels and gangs just stop operating? Do they all go out and get 'real jobs'? Or will they look for a new way to fund their criminal enterprise? For example...develop, manufacture, and distribute a new drug.

So cartels become pharmaceutical companies? lol

Obviously these people continue to operate but market changes dictate that they can't continue to do what they were doing. If you are doing something and making money you don't have immunity to keep on doing that for the rest of your life lol. So if you cut the arse out of any industry it either dies or changes. Now if drug companies are so inept that cartels can produce black market substances at a lower cost to the consumer then 100% this would continue to happen.

[BananaStand]

So cartels become pharmaceutical companies? lol

Illicit ones, yes, absolutely.

So if you cut the arse out of any industry it either dies or changes.

We agree. It's not like the cartels have stood pat throughout the now decades-long war on drugs. Tougher law enforcement means higher costs for the cartels. Higher costs means changes. For example, poppy production in Mexico has gone WAY up just in the last few years. No more importing from South America.

Now if drug companies are so inept that cartels can produce black market substances at a lower cost to the consumer then 100% this would continue to happen.

Are the drug companies inept? Or are they just made hopelessly non-competitive by crushing government regulations?

And the cartels dont' necessarily have to produce at a lower cost. They just need to sell at a lower cost until the customer is addicted.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/02...-epidemic.html