Re:Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?
by Qz on Monday April 26, 2010 @03:42PM
(#1295736)
The police...then go after the cartel and shut them down.
Hah, if it were that easy we wouldn't still be in this 'War on Drugs'.
Re:Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?
by Symmetry on Monday April 26, 2010 @04:09PM
(#1295832)
No, the critical difference is that as things currently stand none of the people involved in the drug trade have any reason to cooperate with the authorities. And really, once alcohol was legalized look at how quickly the mob violence around it disappeared.
Re:Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?
by Vivtek on Monday April 26, 2010 @11:33PM
(#1297132)
Right. Prohibition created the Mafia - before Prohibition they were a bunch of petty Italian thugs, but America's real desire for alcohol made them rich and powerful. Prohibition never works. You'd think a bunch of free marketeers like American conservatives would get that.
Precisely the point: If the cartels come to intimidate grandma, she calls the police, because her operation is legal and the intimidation is not. The police, because her operation is legal, then go after the cartel and shut them down.
Additionally, contract laws and theft/burglary laws and so on work in grandma's favor, because the legal system is at least potentially on the side of her legal operation. This alone greatly reduces the need for violence.