[i_am_nomad]

“In the end the only leverage USA has is its market. So if they give market to legal entities, cartels and violence associated with them will go away.”

Oil is legalized in the US, yet a cartel has until recently dominated that market, and OPEC’s members certainly use violence to maintain their control. The only thing displacing OPEC now isn’t a free market, it’s local production.

[dredmorbius]

Oil has been cartelised, in one form or another, for virtually its entire modern history.

Standard Oil, the Seven Sisters, the As-Is agreement, Texaas Raialroad Commission, National Producers, OPEC.

There are economic reasons.

[moftz]

Except we don't have bodies hanging off bridges and school buses full of dead children because the oil companies want to show who's boss.

[i_am_nomad]

Sounds like you're unfamiliar with the handiwork of the House of Saud, or Vladimir Putin. Both of them have a very high body count and list of atrocities done in the name of oil revenues.

[moftz]

Russia isn't a member of OPEC but they still work with them. The oil cartels don't exactly have the same egregious violence that the drug cartels are known for, it's a bit different but the Saudis do have their own way of influencing the region.