http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022208dnintdrugs.3a98bb0.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-02-21-2221217072_x.htm
According to the USDOJs National Drug Threat Assessment for 2009 these Mexican drug trafficking organizations produced 15,500 metric tons of marijuana in 2007, with most of it coming here. The last government estimate I saw on total supply here was that between 12,000 and 25,000 metric tons are available on the market in a given year. It is probable that most of the marijuana on the market in the US comes from Mexico.
2009 National Drug Threat Assessment:
http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs31/31379/marijuan.htm#Top
I were to legalize and regulate the production and sales of marijuana similar to the way we regulate alcohol we would deprive these cartels of most of their income and make them much smaller and much less of a threat. We'd also make it harder for them to sell their other more dangerous drugs here. Americans consume more marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined. All the drugs from Mexico are coming in the same way and moving through the same channels, but down toward the bottom of the distribution line the distribution networks really fan out. The people selling to consumers and selling to those who sell to consumers are mostly dealing in marijuana, but a lot of them will deal in the other drugs as well. If they want to sell some cocaine or meth all they have to do is go to their pot suppliers who can help them get it from up the line. If the people up the line want to move more cocaine or whatever, lose some dealers down the line because of arrests, all they have to do is hit up pot dealers down the line and they'll be able to find people to move their other drugs. If we take the marijuana industry from them they'll lose this and it will be harder for them to move the hard stuff to end consumers. They'll lose most of their income and have a harder time moving the hard stuff. We should have done this a long time ago.
Legalizing pot like kali or BC have done would be nice
And in 20 years, the liberal ambulance-chasing lawyers will be droning on and on about the evils of "Big Pot" the way they now do about "Big Tobacco."
I'll get the popcorn.
Cheers!