Drugs: A moral decision, a matter of choice, or a national health risk?

[The Grand Nudger]

In fact if all heavy drugs were legal, they would be so expensive because of taxes that traffic would continue.

Doubtful, just judging by cigarettes. Costs the manufacturer approx $6 per carton (most of that is the box....second behind that the filters, and then operations - the actual drug itself is pennies), costs the consumer in excess of $50 a carton (approx $42 of that being various state and federal taxes). I think you would agree that this is an obscene tax rate. Nevertheless, it is still within the means of the poorest of the poor (and increasingly, their vice, not the vice of affluence). As I mentioned, there is smuggling of cigs (and the numbers above explain why) but you'll be hard pressed to find examples of that trade taking on the demeanor and garb of smuggling those products currently on our list of illicit substances. People smuggle t-shirts as well, for perspective. In the case of cigarettes, any incentive for a criminal organization to really dive in is soaked up by our government (which could be argued to be the criminals in this case). The same would be true of any drug regulated in a similar manner - no matter how "hard" or "heavy" the drug is (keep in mind, alcohol shares a dubious distinction with few other drugs in that detox can actually kill the addict...so a drugs "heaviness" is a shady concept to begin with, particularly as a justification for criminalization set against the availability of alcohol). Perhaps some cartel wannabe -would- get the notion to enter into the business...but his competition would be federal and state governments, not some other criminal organization.

The reason that manufacturing of trafficking of prohibited substances is so lucrative is that there's literally -no- competition, and no one skimming your till. That's really all there is to it. Let people compete in an open arena with all available support and you're going to see margins drop further, while a higher quality product is delivered - and as a result cartels will be crushed by "legitimate business". Trafficking won't be an issue so much as embezzling and corporate tax fraud. All of this assumes our system and situation...may be different where you are. Any cigarette cartels overrunning your neighboring countries governments over there?