The Cartel's Shot The 36 Year Old Female Police Chief In Border Town, Mexico.

[fightingquaker13]

I'm honestly not worryed about the cartels, I'm worryed about the low level street guys.

They could very easily turn to kidnapping( like they already do thru out latin america), robbery, "protection", slavery, other crimes...

It will happen.

They already have. Its why I go off the Libertarian reservation and oppose legalizing prostitution until we seal the border. Too many girls are offered jobs as "maids" and then get forced into brothels. Close the borders and the problem greatly decreases as you won't have the super vulnerable population to prey on. As far as kidnaping and such? Drugs fuel it as it lets them buy weapons and lawyers. Kidnap for ransom used to be a thriving business here. The FBI pretty much shut it down outside of ethnic communities who won't go to the police or have vulnerable folks back home. Again, closing the border solves a lot of this problem. It needs to be done. Its hard now. It will be impossible later. There is a point where an un-PC Operation Wetback type program could do a world of good on both sides of the border. As far as "not militarizing the border"? Why the hell not? Who cares if it irritates Mexico? What are they going to do? Drop out of NAFTA? Stop encouraging their citizens to go north? Somehow, I think I can live with that.
FQ13

[SwoopSJ]

Who cares if it irritates Mexico? What are they going to do? Drop out of NAFTA? Stop encouraging their citizens to go north? Somehow, I think I can live with that.

Big +1, it would be nice if everyone shared that opinion!  I would just like to add that Mexico's terrible acts of retribution should also include sending me a fat stack of cash and a beautiful Seniorita.  Boy, that would show me!   

Swoop

 

[fightingquaker13]

Big +1, it would be nice if everyone shared that opinion!  I would just like to add that Mexico's terrible acts of retribution should also include sending me a fat stack of cash and a beautiful Seniorita.  Boy, that would show me!   

Swoop

 

If they throw in the senorita, I'd be willing to offer a tour of the Alamo.
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

I should have placed an "or" between the two, as I meant them to be separate solutions.  In defense of scenario 1, any shift in the ratio of those who do drugs to those who don't, would be statistically insignificant.  Those who would do drugs, more than likely, are already doing them anyway, regardless of legality.  Legalization would simply take funding from the violent cartels and street gangs, as well as provide us tax dollars.  This will never happen though, because of the vast number of drug related law enforcement jobs that would be lost, as well as the lack of social acceptance.  Scenario 2, will never occur either, as I stated in my original post, due to social / political fallout.  The demand part of the market will NEVER be eliminated, so until our government grows some cajones, this will continue to be a problem.
Swoop  

The money saved by not funding the obviously ineffectual "War on drugs" could be added to the tax revenue generated by legal sales to cut your taxes, or at least put toward lowering the deficit. Legalization would lower overhead, transportation and risk costs which would lower the sale price which in turn would lower the profit margin .
Third, legalization would give competing retailers a forum to settle disputes in court rather than through killings and drive by's.
Those who argue otherwise are simply indoctrinated to believe lies that ignore the history of the turn of the century when these items were perfectly legal. Remember, Coca-cola was originally formulated with Cola nuts, and Cocaine.