“Make it legal to have massive coca fields near the border, and those fields will be under the armed control of the cartels, and nothing will have changed. Make it legal for huge marijuana plantations, and again, they’ll simply be armed cartel camps.”
Couple of minor points: Hate to invest in “massive coca fields” in northern Mexico, it won’t grow there; my drug lord would probably torture me thouroughly before killing me for suggesting such a waste of money.
Unlike oil, with legal status, America could become self-sufficient in pot or opium poppies almost overnight! No more dinero to cartels, terrorists or anyone abroad. I am reliably told that the finest quality pot in the world is grown here in the USA, some indoors, some in National Forests, never underestimate the ingenuity of the American entrepanuer!
More serious note: Elliot Ness did not end the alcohol-related violence and corruption spawned by Prohibition: the end of Prohibition did. Yeah, Ness took down Capone (on tax charges, not rum-running) after a two year effort and three more as bad or worse immediately jumped in. The ultimate speak-easy consumer probably never noticed the difference.
The criminality of drugs is EXACTLY what grew the cartels, and without that flow of illegal money they will wither away or shift to other businesses, possibly less lethal ones, as did American gangsters.
I want a shred of evidence the “War on Drugs” does anything save fatten the wrong pockets. Cocaine and heroin are cheaper, purer, and more available today than in 1980. Meth-heads can get their stuff more easily than I can get psuedophedrin in allergy season. Legalization will not result in any significant increase in use: ANYONE who wants ANYTHING can get it now.
Don't you mean the Mexican drug cartels who have grow sites in the Angeles forest near Los Angeles, the hills above San Mateo, the tribal lands near Seattle....