I get you. If I were a drug dealer or bootlegger, I'd be holding out for legalization also. But, and I may be completely wrong, let's think it out. Look at who you're employing. Likely school dropouts who have been taught violence is the appropriate counter-measure to problems. You've got a few notorious crews, a distribution network that knows how to void police, and many street level people.
Now, I'm changing my outfit the second it goes legit. I'm in storefronts, I've got catchy packaging, I've got customer incentive programs, and everyone will know my website and Twitter.
So, now that I'm shipping UPS and insuring your product, what happens to my former crew? The hardcore bunch that did my killing? The street gangs? The people who escaped police? They're the ones looking for a new grind. They're schooled in the ways of the evading cops, killing, and terror tactics. They're going to use the tools they have to make money. They may even be angry at their former employers who are now legitimately wealthy. And seeing how popular kidnapping has become in South America? No reason it couldn't catch on in Mexico as well, given the right circumstances.
The thugs would be ratting the drug lords out all over the place to get plea bargains.
The biggest winner in the war on drugs are criminal enterprises, just because of the profit margins. These are agricultural products that anyone could produce given some soil and modest investments. How could this sustain the lavish lifestyles the top of the cartels have gotten used to?
Now, I'm changing my outfit the second it goes legit. I'm in storefronts, I've got catchy packaging, I've got customer incentive programs, and everyone will know my website and Twitter.
So, now that I'm shipping UPS and insuring your product, what happens to my former crew? The hardcore bunch that did my killing? The street gangs? The people who escaped police? They're the ones looking for a new grind. They're schooled in the ways of the evading cops, killing, and terror tactics. They're going to use the tools they have to make money. They may even be angry at their former employers who are now legitimately wealthy. And seeing how popular kidnapping has become in South America? No reason it couldn't catch on in Mexico as well, given the right circumstances.