Remember, pot legalization "won't significantly impact on the Mexican cartels"

[Cain]

 

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/31/10694644/marijuana-legalization-winning

The loosening of marijuana laws across much of the United States has increased competition from growers north of the border, apparently enough to drive down prices paid to Mexican farmers. Small-scale growers here in the state of Sinaloa, one of the country's biggest production areas, said that over the last four years the amount they receive per kilogram has fallen from $100 to $30.

The price decline appears to have led to reduced marijuana production in Mexico and a drop in trafficking to the U.S., according to officials on both sides of the border and available data.

This was a predictable outcome of legalization, but still a big deal and welcome news. One of the major arguments for legal pot is that it will weaken drug cartels, cutting off a major source of revenue and inhibiting their ability to carry out violent acts — from mass murders to beheadings to extortion — around the world. And cannabis used to make up a significant chunk of cartels' drug export revenue: as much as 20 to 30 percent, according to previous estimates from the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (2012) and the RAND Corporation (2010).

Will this be enough to completely eliminate drug cartels? Certainly not. These groups deal in far more than pot, including extortion and other drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Still, it will hurt. As the numbers above suggest, marijuana used to be a big source of drug cartels' revenue, and that's slowly but surely going away. It's still possible that legalization in America could produce downsides in the US, such as more cannabis abuse. But it's a potentially huge win for Mexico and other Latin American countries.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

GOSH, HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? The good guys at the DEA didn't predict it going like this!

[Cain]

B-but there's a WaPo article which quotes a study by the RAND corporation (experts on Latin America: 2.  Areas of expertise: Cuba and Islamic terrorism) which says otherwise!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And then there's Portugal, with drug addiction halved to 2nd lowest in the world and still dropping after 15 years of total decriminalization.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/

[Cain]

You may recall this exchange.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You may recall this exchange.

Oh yeah. One of his finest moments as a science-denier. 

[Cainad (dec.)]

Good god, how did you remember that well enough to find it? Those threads are all a blur to me.

[Faust]

Lol, it even fell within the predicted percentage bands.

[Cain]

Good god, how did you remember that well enough to find it? Those threads are all a blur to me.

It stood out as being egregiously stupid, even by the standards of those threads.  "Mexican criminologists/former police intelligence aren't experts!  Some dudes from RAND who study Cuba and terrorism know WAY MORE about the Mexican Cartels than people who have spent their whole law enforcement and academic career studying the cartels."

Lol, it even fell within the predicted percentage bands.

It's almost like some kind of science or something.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]