Capitalism in action, driving out the black market

[johndoe3]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ ... spartandhp

A published academic study shows how the free market and capitalism is driving out the black market and offering product at lower prices.
Average price in Washington State has fallen 67% since legalization, leading to greatly reduced black market ($23.00/gram down to current $7.38/gram in 3 years). Colorado has had a similar drop in prices as the free market lowered prices.

[poikilotrm]

LE tells me that the cartels will start kidnapping people to make up for lost profits. When does that begin? Soon? Not really seeing it right now.

[doubloon]

But you don't trust the po-po.

[poikilotrm]

But you don't trust the po-po.

And for good reason.

[a_canadian]

Kidnappings bad, obviously. But at least that narrows the focus rather dramatically. Kidnapping is going to be a death sentence for the cartels, as governments tend to take it more seriously than dope peddling. The numbers of crimes and of people involved, the more clearly defined locales, these should make doing battle with and wiping out cartels more straightforward, if not easy or simple. Doing battle with drug production and distribution networks was a failure before it even got seriously started. It's just too vast. Make all drugs legal and monitored for purity to almost eliminate OD deaths and excessive healthcare system costs. It's the only sensible way to go.