From Time’s Tim McGirk:
Law enforcement officials say that a wildfire now raging in Santa Barbara’s Los Padres National park, burning more than 136 square miles, was sparked by a cooking fire started by the hirelings of a Mexican drug cartel which was growing thousands of marijuana plants in the remote canyons. Far from an isolated incident, the Los Padres fire, according to law enforcement agents, highlights an alarming trend: the invasion of California wilderness and parklands by armed Mexican drug cartels.
The article then goes on to say that California’s budgetary problems are causing massive cuts in rangers, firefighters, and police. So they start forest fires, bring criminal elements into the drug trade in the region, set booby traps in the parks, and are environmentally destructive through the use of toxic pesticides to grow the pot.
But you know, if growing a certain plant was legal, then this wouldn’t be a problem.Report
I’m not convinced legalization would solve all problems, but I think in general it would be a much better scenario than this. I think the main thing is to de-escalate the weaponization and criminalization of marijuana.Report
Of course legalization is not a cure-all. Cure-alls don’t exist. That’s not the point. Criminalization was supposed to be the cure once upon a time–for what, I really don’t know for sure. If you support criminalization, like it seems you do (albeit in a wishy-washy way) then show that it benefits society more than the status quo ante, which, by the way, existed for thousands of years. Drugs were perfectly legal before criminalization. Where’s the evidence that this was an untenable situation? Because I think we agree that today’s persecution of drugs is untenable.Report
My position would be something like legalization for pot and decrimininalization (not legalization) for other drugs.
Here in Vancouver where I live there is a place that does clean needle exchanges, and as much as there is constant talk that this encourages drug use, study after study shows that’s bogus, and the needle exchange seriously reduces the spread of infectious diseases. I think that’s obviously a good idea.Report