comment: >
  
  Don't get me wrong, absolutely end the war on drugs. 
  Just adding my .02 that the problem is so big now that we basically have to declare a war on the damage caused by the war on drugs to fix it
context: How do you shoot a baby in the back of the head? I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. I'm done with news for a while. >
  
  The cartels are very violent and depraved individuals. >
  
  They need a spa day. >
  
  If by spa day you mean "to be actively hunted" then yeah, sure. >
  
  They’re filling a need, sadly. People buy drugs. Other people make money off of selling those drugs. Those sellers become increasingly greedy, violently so. Continue ad infinitum. >
  
  There's a simple answer:  legalize all drugs.  The Cartels would still subsist on human trafficking, but that doesn't drive this level of depravity.
  Legalize all drugs, and you turn the cartels in to law abiding, tax paying, road-and-school building Central American Big Pharma.
  We've been trying the criminal route for over a hundred years now.  It's never worked, and has served to only flush trillions down the toilet along with millions of lives.  Our police forces have militarized...
  It's insanity.
  We can find other means to deal with addiction, as well as admit that the vast majority of drug users are not addicts, and don't behave in a way that requires the criminal justice system to be involved.
  End the War on Drugs. >
  
  You aren't wrong about the damage the war on drugs has caused. Unfortunately ending the war on drugs would not stop the cartels now. Their investments are... diversified now. >
  
  The arms of the cartels that are involved with human trafficking, gambling, and guns would still remain.
  But those industries don't generate the hundreds of billions of dollars that cocaine and opiates do.
  You're kidding yourself if you think that they'll remain a threat to the public as they now do once drugs are legalized.
  How do I know?
  Because we had the same exact scenario play out here with prohibition.  And then, subsequently with the legalization of gambling and Las Vegas / Atlantic City.
  Each time their bread and butter was legalized, they suddenly found that the rule of law was available to them.  And not only that, that cushy position of advantage would be lost if they started rocking the boat with violence / old habits.
  In the end, we still have a mafia / mob.  But they're not driven by the kind of money that can upend governments.  And all the smart ones went legit, anyway.