I think this is blindingly obvious. Once Prohibition was repealed the lucrative profits from bootlegging/speakeasies/etc vanished, and so did the likes of Al Capone, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the rest. 'The Mob' did not disappear, but retreated into the more benign background of gambling/numbers/casinos, protection rackets, an so forth. Think about it: the U.S. had carloads of mobsters driving around making hits on people with Tommy guns. There was a running gun battle between the Feds and the Mob.

Decriminalize drugs, and the profit motive for the cocanistas and all the other drug lords goes poof in a heartbeat. It is just that simple.

I really don't want to hear any moralizing from the self-appointed guardians of America decency out there about this. Plain old cigarettes have killed over 400,000 people per year for decades and no one says boo hoo to any of that. In fact, plenty of people (some who I personally know) and politicians go to great lengths defending the 'right' of God-fearing patriot American tobacco farmers to grow their poison and profit from it. Plenty of beer-soaked bubbas would start a revolution if we tried (again) to crack down on alcohol, the abuse of which aslo kills many people each year. These apologists always invoke personal responsibility and personal liberties when they defend the legality of these substances...but draw their own arbitrary line at invoking the same philosophy about currently banned substances. Hypocrisy much, anyone? I have never taken any illegal drugs, nor have I ever smoked, save for one tentative puff when I was 12 (it tasted disgusting). I drink a beer or a glass of wine once per month, maybe. My wife and my almost adult children are the same. Even though tobacco and alcohol are legal and available to us, we choose not to use the former and my wife and I barely imbibe the other very infrequently. There is your personal liberty, personal morality, and personal choice. BTW, I do support the right for government buildings and restaurants, libraries, stores, etc. to ban these things...second-hand smoke is NOT a choice for those who are breathing it and harmed by it. Do what you want in your home. For those who would talk about driving/working under the influence of drugs: There are laws and there should be very stiff penalties for that. This still does not obviate the right to ingest substances on your land/in your home.

Of course these ideas will never fly here, not in small part due to the the huge business that is the American Prison Industry. I've said this before here and I'll say it again: The US Government obtains many things from prison (slave) labor...office furniture (UNICOR, formerly Federal Prison Industries, with each desk having a slip of paper that is the 'Escape-Proof Guarantee), military uniforms, and much more. I would speculate that there are plenty of bribes being paid out to government officials in various 'law enforcement' and 'Dept of Justice' and legislative bodies to keep the co-dependent drug cartel BAU system rolling right along unhindered.

The little old ladies and other moralizers are supporting a paradigm that is rotting us from the inside out. If you can't stop people from doing it, legalize it, tax it, and educate against it.

What is truly sickening is seeing how the drug lord/drug trade has been and still is glorified in many American movies and TV shows. Another industry that would suffer if the current paradigm is broken. How many movies could be made about someone buying weed from Wal Mart?

Rant Off/