

The Economics of Marijuana: What happens to dealers after legalization? - cwan
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/the-economics-of-marijuana/

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rmorrison
Legalizing drugs is one of the most pressing policies that our country needs
to adopt, primarily because of what it'll do to dealers and the black market.
Currently the we're waging an expensive, unwinnable war against gangs and
cartels, who are powerful only because of the black market. Once we start
treating drugs as a medical/social issue instead of a criminal one, prices and
crime will drastically fall.

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tptacek
Or it won't, because while weed is a lucrative line of business for the Mexi
cartels, it isn't the only one, and there is zero chance we're going to
legalize heroin.

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rmorrison
_there is zero chance we're going to legalize heroin_

I agree, although it's necessary that we legalize them all.

If we just legalize marijuana and not cocaine or heroin, we'll be opening an
even bigger problem with the cartels, who would then have to push harder drugs
on school children in order to make the same money that they're currently
making from the marijuana black market.

The point is that drugs are a horrible reality, but legalizing them is by far
the lesser of two evils. We could take the money we're currently wasting on
the war on drugs and put it towards programs to prevent and help addiction.

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coryl
_who would then have to push harder drugs on school children in order to make
the same money that they're currently making from the marijuana black market._

What? School children aren't the largest base of recreational drugs. Cartels
aren't in the business of dealing on street level, let alone to children.

Thats also not the way drugs work, they aren't substitute goods and marijuana
isn't a "gateway drug" as shown by statistics.

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smhinsey
As many people have said, marijuana is only a gateway drug in the sense that
you have to buy it from a drug dealer.

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coryl
I've never heard of it in that context. Gateway drug usually refers to drugs
in a stepping stone manner.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_drug_theory>

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smhinsey
I'm sure you get the spirit of that statement, but if not, it's not really
about the actual idea of some sort of natural progression but rather that
because you have to seek out an illegal source for it, you're more likely to
come into contact with sources of other illegal drugs, and therefore more
likely to try them as well.

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sli
My advice? Go legit. Open a cafe.

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zackattack
I plan on opening a Discovery Zone

