Reply #7: I think you think wrong.

[RaleighNCDUer]

The cartels are fighting over what is not quite, but nearly, a monopoly on an illicit product. If people could grow their own without facing jail, tens of thousands would. There are millions of pot smokers who don't particularly fear being caught with a bag, but who would never dare try raising their own because of the automatic implication that they are growing to sell, meaning a lot more than a fine. The fact is, most people buy from just other people. As you go into higher quantities those 'other people' have increasing contact with criminals for whom the drugs is only one aspect of their criminal activities. Legalize pot and the big supplier won't be the cartel boss, but the farmers' market.

As for harder drugs, when pot was decriminalized in Holland the hard drug use actually declined - people didn't have to deal with criminal dealers to get pot.

The drug cartels would stop their wars, just as the mafia stopped its booze wars once alcohol was legalized. When's the last time you heard of the CEO of Jack Daniels setting up a hit on Absolut?

So WHY, exactly, do you think the violence would increase?