Didn’t you learn from prohibition? Keeping drugs illegal creates a black market, and drug dealers don’t card kids. Doesn’t it make more sense to tax and regulate marijuana?
States that have legalized marijuana continue to see a thriving black market and increasing rates of youth drug use, providing evidence that this theory of “tax and regulate” does not fare well in real life.
People like going for the cheaper product. Untaxed marijuana on the underground market will always be attractive. And what about kids under 21, or those looking for pot after opening hours? People don’t just smoke marijuana from 9 to 7.
Also, drug cartels are widely diversified businesses that make money trafficking in humans, cocaine, heroin, meth, extortion, intellectual property theft, etc. Marijuana is a small portion of their overall business. It would be naïve to suggest that cartels would cease to exist even if marijuana legalization eliminated the black market.
A leaked report from Oregon State Police found that the black market there has greatly increased since the state legalized marijuana, including significant trafficking operations to states that have not legalized marijuana as well as foreign countries. And the Colorado Attorney General’s office said that legalization“ has inadvertently helped fuel the business of Mexican drug cartels… cartels are now trading drugs like heroin for marijuana.”
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