HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!

[KC2UGV]

Doubtful. The profit-per-volume ratio of marijuana is far lower than crystal meth, crack and similar highly addictive narcotics. Those substances yield the cartels high profits with relatively low refinement and distribution risks. The government could give pot away by the truckload and it wouldn't alter the hard-core addicts' behaviors one iota.

Crystal meth and crack are both locally manufactured, generally speaking. Now, cocaine, from whence crack comes from gets here across the border. However, the main problem with crack is that it's cheaper than marijuana. Both marijuana and cocaine costs about the same to get across the border. Cocaine, however, carries stiffer penalties than marijuana, hence gets more expensive once it hits the border. Crack is cheap, because it's cocaine, cut down with common household chemicals, to the point where per-sale units of crack are cheaper than per-sale units of marijuana.

Make marijuana legal, and it becomes cheaper than crack. Capitalism will dictate that more people will buy marijuana than crack, since it would be easily obtainable, cheaper, and zero risk (When compared to crack). Why try crack for the first time when you can just go down to the gas station and get a pack of spliffs?

Border security has zero to do with crystal meth, since it is primarily manufactured from common chemicals that are cheap here in the US. Want to eliminate meth? Put up "border security" around rural areas. That's where meth is made. It's the new "moonshine".