Corporations instead of cartels -- or be careful what you wish for. [View all]

[Robb]

Obama spoke in Colombia on the "war on drugs", and had I thought a rather nuanced answer to a question about legalization.

President Obama said the answer to the increasing power of drug cartels in the hemisphere was to encourage societies with strong economics, rule of law, and a sound law enforcement infrastructure.

"I personally and my administration's position is that legalization is not the answer, that in fact if you think about how it would end up operating, the capacity of a large-scale drug trade to dominate certain countries, if they were allowed to operate legally without any constraint could be just as corrupting, if not more corrupting than the status quo," he said.

This sounds to me like a transition strategy. If legalization happened tomorrow, he's suggesting cartels would exert the same corrupting influence on countries like Colombia that they do today -- only without fear of even a token reprisal from law enforcement. Instead, I think he's saying, you knock out the cartels first, then legalize.

Then, of course, corporations will move in. Drugs will always be big business -- you can grow your own, but people can grow their own vegetables, too, and don't. I understand the administration's position that a corporation might operate slightly more ethically than a cartel that suddenly gains legal status -- but I don't agree the difference will be as marked as one might hope.