illegal drugs

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The Washington Post reports that a U.S. effort to help curb drug activity -- and its attendant violence -- in Mexico is superficial at best and ineffective at worst. Americans buy the drugs. It is a profitable business. The body count, to judge by the occasional American news report, is bad and getting worse. The sense of instability and fear must be enormous among ordinary Mexicans.

I realize the idea sets off a firestorm of debate -- with good arguments abounding -- but I wonder idly what would happen if illegal drugs were made legal. Profits would probably drop among the drug cartels (and equally probably rise among the pharmaceutical cartels), but I wonder if erasing the illegality aspect wouldn't ease the body count in Mexico, even as it raised the body count in the U.S. Alcohol, the single biggest addiction problem in the U.S., was legal, became illegal (and violent) and then became legal again.

As I say ... it's just a passing thought. I wouldn't stand on a soap box about it.
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