6 ms·

Events like this are the main reason why The War on Drugs™ is so dangerous for everybody. It's not the drugs or gangs killing gangs. It's the gangsters that liv

Events like this are the main reason why The War on Drugs™ is so dangerous for everybody. It's not the drugs or gangs killing gangs. It's the gangsters that live through it sitting on piles of money who now have the resources to expand into crimes that take more than a gun, friends with guns, and some luck. Because of the prohibition they can now hire hackers to commit crimes for them in any place in the world. It's going to get harder to implicate them in crimes, and yet easier for them to make money off them. Possibly the worst part is that this happened to us(and is still affecting us) in almost exact detail during the prohibition of the 20s and yet we continue to shrug our shoulders and keep giving them more money.

vibrunazo 14y ago
> we continue to shrug our shoulders and keep giving them more money. Aren't the ones shrugging their shoulders (who are for the war on drugs), and the ones giving them money (who buy drugs), two completely separate and opposite groups? Don't look at me, I don't belong to neither. But that sentence sounds like an over-simplification of a complex problem.
- lucisferre 14y ago
  Ironically its your's that is the real oversimplification. Fortunately that wasn't the view taken when they finally ended prohibition. It's pretty well known that you dont get far treating the symptoms.
- Taft 14y ago
  The correct lesson to learn here is "markets amass when there's demand," or, more simply put, "people will always buy their drugs."
paulhauggis 14y ago
unfortunately, legalizing drugs isn't going to solve anything. Gangsters will still have piles of money because they will now have a legal business. The real problem is police/government corruption. It's the reason they were allowed to get this powerful in the first place.
- z92 14y ago
  The whole point of legalizing drugs is gangsters won't be able to generate piles of money through a legal business.
gregbair 14y ago
Well, first of all, this article is complete BS with no corroboration or even references. Secondly, even if there weren't a war on drugs, the gangsters would find something else to peddle, like people. Gangsters existed before prohibition and existed after, they just moved into different rackets.
- oinksoft 14y ago
  Oh, come on. Joe Blow wants to buy weed, blow, crank, and dope because his life sucks, he's bored, or he just likes the stuff. Very few people like that are in the market for a human being. You really can't compare the profitability of an easily produced and smuggled commodity with something like the trafficking of persons.
  - gregbair 14y ago
    I'm not, I was simply saying that if all those things were legal, criminals (the cartels, not the users) would find something else illegal to peddle. These people look for an easy buck, and right now, that happens to be in illicit drugs. Take that profit away, and they'll just find something else.
    - mjallday 14y ago
      But some easy bucks are easier and less damaging than others. No doubt if drugs are legalized they will move on to something else but the total market they can address will be smaller.
      - DanBC 14y ago
        People trafficking is the second largest organised criminal activity. It's low risk with bigger profit margins than drugs. Data is hard to get, partly because there's little international agreement about what should be measured as well as the difficulty of finding the victims. Here's a UN document which is reasonably cautious. (http://www.ungift.org/docs/ungift/pdf/knowledge/ebook.pdf http://www.ungift.org/docs/ungift/pdf/knowledge/ebook.pdf) Global profits are > $30billion USD. > the total market they can address will be smaller. Bigger profits.

vibrunazo 14y ago

> we continue to shrug our shoulders and keep giving them more money. Aren't the ones shrugging their shoulders (who are for the war on drugs), and the ones giving them money (who buy drugs), two completely separate and opposite groups? Don't look at me, I don't belong to neither. But that sentence sounds like an over-simplification of a complex problem.

lucisferre 14y ago
Ironically its your's that is the real oversimplification. Fortunately that wasn't the view taken when they finally ended prohibition. It's pretty well known that you dont get far treating the symptoms.
Taft 14y ago
The correct lesson to learn here is "markets amass when there's demand," or, more simply put, "people will always buy their drugs."

paulhauggis 14y ago

unfortunately, legalizing drugs isn't going to solve anything. Gangsters will still have piles of money because they will now have a legal business. The real problem is police/government corruption. It's the reason they were allowed to get this powerful in the first place.

z92 14y ago
The whole point of legalizing drugs is gangsters won't be able to generate piles of money through a legal business.

gregbair 14y ago

Well, first of all, this article is complete BS with no corroboration or even references. Secondly, even if there weren't a war on drugs, the gangsters would find something else to peddle, like people. Gangsters existed before prohibition and existed after, they just moved into different rackets.

oinksoft 14y ago
Oh, come on. Joe Blow wants to buy weed, blow, crank, and dope because his life sucks, he's bored, or he just likes the stuff. Very few people like that are in the market for a human being. You really can't compare the profitability of an easily produced and smuggled commodity with something like the trafficking of persons.
- gregbair 14y ago
  I'm not, I was simply saying that if all those things were legal, criminals (the cartels, not the users) would find something else illegal to peddle. These people look for an easy buck, and right now, that happens to be in illicit drugs. Take that profit away, and they'll just find something else.
  - mjallday 14y ago
    But some easy bucks are easier and less damaging than others. No doubt if drugs are legalized they will move on to something else but the total market they can address will be smaller.
    - DanBC 14y ago
      People trafficking is the second largest organised criminal activity. It's low risk with bigger profit margins than drugs. Data is hard to get, partly because there's little international agreement about what should be measured as well as the difficulty of finding the victims. Here's a UN document which is reasonably cautious. (http://www.ungift.org/docs/ungift/pdf/knowledge/ebook.pdf http://www.ungift.org/docs/ungift/pdf/knowledge/ebook.pdf) Global profits are > $30billion USD. > the total market they can address will be smaller. Bigger profits.