Legalizing drugs isn't the solution. Taking the "War on Drugs" to the suppliers, and making it a real war, is. I say, we give Latin America a deadline to cut the flow of drugs out of their borders and into the US; after which, we take the gloves off. UAVs operating 24/7/365 searching for illicit convoys moving across our border, alerting ground attack aircraft or artillery emplacements to destroy them. Every time an official of a legitimate government in a Latin American nation is killed by the drug cartels, we ID the home of a drug lord and drop a laser guided bomb down his chimney. When seaborne smugglers are IDed, sink their craft with all hands. If we can't block them from smuggling drugs into America, we need to start killing the smugglers and their bosses until there are none left to smuggle drugs in.
You SERIOUSLY think that is going to work? How much is your "brilliant plan" going to cost? So we are going to start gunning down illegals as they try to cross the border at night with drugs on their back? How are you going to ID what drug lord killed what official? How are we going to verify the intelligent we gather, how will we tell if one smuggler hasn't framed another. How will we investigate what cop is on what cartels payroll? How will we investigate what investigator is on the cartels payroll? (These are third world countries we are talking about.)
You do realize that smuggling has become decentralized, with far fewer large players, and more smaller players. You want us to be bombing civilian populations because you feel like it? You don't think the cartels will arm themselves in response? They, for the most part, currently don't because there isn't a need for that kind of firepower. They only kill competitors, and people who step on their toes too much, and some perople caught in the crossfire.
Several countries in the world have drug smuggling as a capital offense. We spray poison from the air in quantities that would be illegal in the US, killing as many legal crops as illegal crops and we still have drugs.
I am disturbed by your desire to have a Judge Dred type society. You wish to kill thousands because some people here in the US want to get high in a non-government approved manner?
After all this, guess what? There will still be drugs available in the US.
It is simple supply and demand. Someone will still be willing to take the risk. It will also be the perfect deal for the military-industrial complex. A war that will never end. Even if the impossible happens and drugs do go away, you can't end the war because then someone will start up again. We would become the Otomo Katsuhiro work, "Cannon Fodder". walled in, continuing to fire into the fog at an enemy that may or may not exist, yet continuing to slave away, loading the cannons, to fire away at a phantom enemy.
We have been using your method for almost 40 years. We have been "getting tougher" for decades. It does not work.
