[Alupis]

This pitched scenario has played out in exactly zero markets around the world, including all of the legal-marijuana states right here in the US.

[TylerE]

Cartels aren't generally dealing in marijuana, it's small potatoes.

[Alupis]

It's not just cartels in the classical sense.

In CA, it's cheaper to buy illegal marijuana than going to one of the licensed stores, for a whole variety of reasons.

That "market arbitrage" opens the door for a lot of things to occur - all things proponents of legalization promised would go away.

[TylerE]

The market for hard drugs and marijuana are totally different.

[Alupis]

Little bit of a straw man there. Nobody said they weren't different things.

The promises of the legalize-marijuana crowd have not become true. There is still crime revolving around marijuana in CA, it's more expensive than it was before legalization, and the tax revenue is a drop in the bucket for CA.

So all we "gained" was a bunch more people using marijuana...

[TylerE]

You kinda did by talking about marijuana exclusively while I was talking about hard drugs.