I don't think drug legalization is the final answer the problem of cartels. Like the article says, '“The goal of these folks is not to sell drugs,” Tony Placido, who was the top intelligence official at the D.E.A. until he retired last year, told me. “It’s to earn a spendable profit and live to enjoy it.”'

If you shut down their income from drugs, they will find another way to make money. I had the opportunity to talk to a former U.S. Border Patrol sector chief in San Diego about the cartels. He said that in San Diego, they achieved some level of success in constraining the drug trade. The cartel response? Kidnap people and hold them for ransom. Like any business, they will find another way to make money when the market changes. As their innovations in finding new ways to bring drugs into the country shows, they can be creative when faced with a business problem.