Legalizing Drugs To Reduce Violence: A Mexican's Life Is Worth Your Good Time, Right?

I saw this article posted to a forum I frequent:

Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence

The author, Jeffrey A. Miron is a lecturer in economics at Harvard University. He makes a familiar argument in his piece on this subject:

Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.

Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.

Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.

He's 100% right about this. If you ban something people really want, some (probably many of them) will find ways to get it anyway through the black market. And just as Miron says, violence is how things are typically settled in the black market because disputes cannot be brought before civil courts.

What I disagree with is this notion that legalizing drugs in the United States will reduce violence abroad. It does not follow that legal consumption here means folks such as the cartels that are currently ripping apart Mexico will suddenly open up corner shops and play nice (if things did work this way, then every nation we buy oil from would be a paradise). Unless production of drugs is made legal in the countries that sell them to users in the United States, the violence will continue as producers battle for turf and market share. Legalization would have to occur simultaneously in the United States and all places where the drugs consumed here come from (which is a gross oversimplification of the problem - getting rid of the cartels would involve far more than just legalizing the production of their products), otherwise there is still reason for underground operators to continue the battles that have cost thousands of lives.

Do I think we could reduce many of the problems we have here through legalization? Yes and no - I think we could solve some but create others (though perhaps the new problems would be somewhat more benign). If we were to do so for reasons of "stopping violence," we would be fooling ourselves. That's why I think that those who advocate legalizing recreational drug consumption in the U.S. need to look themselves in the mirror and say "my good time is worth more to me than the lives of Mexicans and numerous other South Americans." (Substitute people from other locales where your drugs come from as needed; those already using drugs produced south of our southern border and elsewhere should already be saying this to themselves.)

Think I'm wrong? Look up "blood diamonds" and see if you can find any similarities.