FIGHT DRUG CARTELS THROUGH LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Referring to the legalization of marijuana and its effect on drug
cartels in his Sept. 3 column "An inconvenient truth," Vikram
Srinivasan reminds us "that drugs are illegal now and any discussion
of their ethics must be grounded in the universe of current realities
and consequences." That said, Srinivasan recommends we change said
"current realit[y]" by curtailing private drug use.

Let us take a moment, however, to actually consider the current
reality. We have violent drug cartels, and these cartels exist because
of two reasons: 1) a powerful American appetite for marijuana, and 2)
a refusal to legalize and regulate marijuana. If we are to stop the
drug cartels, we must change one of these causal circumstances. Which
event is better grounded in reality: millions of people suddenly
growing a conscience and dropping their drug habits, or a government
legalizing and regulating marijuana? Is one option not a complete fantasy?

Really, Srinivasan's solution does nothing to actually stop the drug
cartels. Abstaining from marijuana use on moral grounds may negate any
personal responsibility for the drug wars, but it will not stop them.
If we are concerned about the lives of our southern neighbors, we
should focus more on the drug wars themselves than any dubious
connections we may or may not have to them. The legalization and thus
legitimization of marijuana and its sources would be several million
times more effective in this respect than any recommendations to limit
recreational drug use.

While personal ethics are undoubtedly important, if we really want to
prevent "another dead Latin American child" perhaps we should focus on
intelligent (and realistic) policy changes rather than debate personal
morality and our connections to aforementioned dead and dying. Al
Capone was born out of prohibition, and it was a change in public
policy (the re-legalization of alcohol) that put him and his ilk out
of business, not the morality of consumers.

Shreyan Sen

Trinity '12