The Mexican Drug cartels, much like the Colombian cartels before them, make their money from the transportation, distribution and sale of illegal drugs. This is something we all know. What is not apparent is how much this trade our local police forces, the DEA, the state and federal prisons, street crime and our politicians.

To explain this lets look at the following:

• The DEA exists only to crack down on illegal drugs. We know how effective that has been but what we do not talk about is that the continuing existence of the illegal drug trade is essential to the continuing employment of people at the DEA.
• Well over one-half of the population of our state and federal prisons is made up of people there for drug possession or distribution. You will not find any drug cartel leaders among them. If we legalize drugs, then we make unnecessary continuing expansion of our prisons and the continued hiring of prison employees. These people too, have an invested interest in the illegal drug trade continuing.
• Local police can make a great deal of money by not seeing things. This has been the case since any illegal; trade existed be it smuggling or the days of Al Capone.
• Street crime is increased, together with prostitution, by the need of addicts to obtain their next fix. Decriminalizing the drug trade would radically reduce street prices and eliminate most of the driving force for street crime and gangs.
• Local and national politicians receive a great deal of campaign money and assistance from those who profit from the ban on drugs. They are encouraged to step to the line, declare their opposition to drugs and drug dealers and vow to strenuously oppose any reduction in the ‘war on drugs.’

Since both political leaders and people working in local, state and federal positions benefit from the drug trade – what can we do? The answer is decriminalize drugs and set up a method for the control, distribution and taxation similar to that we now have for cigarettes. It works. The black market for cigarettes is virtually non-existent. The tax income is very real and the last time I checked, no one had been killed or rolled for an addict to get enough money for another pack of cigarettes.

I do not believe we should simply ‘throw open the gates’ but rather take a reasoned step-by-step approach. Let’s start with marijuana. People smoke it and we easily envisage your local fast-food chain having marijuana available much as they have cigarettes today – government check, licensed and taxed. Phillip Morris, B&H and RJ Reynolds already know how to do this. So do the connivance stores. The distribution channel exists and for those of you who do not know, marijuana is already the most important cash crop in Florida and California.

What is also important to know that well-founded estimates put marijuana as between 60-80% of the Mexican cartels income. They will obviously spend any amount, do anything (look at what is going on in Mexico now) and bribe anyone to preserve this income stream. Let’s cut off the income stream by decriminalizing marijuana. We should and can work on the other drugs later. But on the meantime, let’s do something!

BBQMan, the points I am going to try and make are not to shut down your points. They are intended to further the discussion. I find this discussion very important and fascinating. It is one of those things I have really, really thought about and talked about with other people with opinions on both sides. I don't have a definitive answer in my mind.

One thing to consider in this discussion is people do still smuggle cigarettes and it is still a very big business. A single truckload of cigarettes (typically 800 cases) highjacked in Virginia yields $1,917,600 in profits if sold in New York.

Here is how most tobacco smuggling rings work according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives: " ...legal entities pay significant taxes on their product, including $1.01 per pack in Federal Excise Tax, from $0.07 to $4.25 per pack in state and local excise taxes, and typically $0.50 per pack to a settlement fund for health care costs incurred by the states as a result of tobacco use by their citizens.

"By selling non-tax paid cigarettes at tax paid prices or just below that price, criminal organizations are able to net a substantial profit. For example, purchasing legally taxed products in Virginia (a low excise tax state) and driving them to New York (a high excise tax state) for resale creates an immediate $3.95 per pack profit margin. A single carton of cigarettes (10 packs) purchased in Virginia and sold in New York will yield about $39.50 in profits; a single case (60 cartons) yields $2,397 in profits and a single truckload (typically 800 cases) yields $1,917,600."



http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/20...commodity.html

Also, a 2004 study from the Government Accountabilty Office (that's an oxymoron): http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04641.pdf

Did you know about this report and the new "global laws" and new search and seizure without a search warrant laws the government is considering to thwart the cigarette smuggling?