Defeating Gangs with Pot!

While people will say end the drug war by legalizing drugs, it is not that simple.  Gangs can still survive if certain circumstances are not met.  Here they are.

Organized Crime, particularly gangs, work exactly the same way as a regular business with the exception that they have guns and they don't pay taxes.  Gangs in general are violent and territorial.  So if we set up businesses that conform to the laws to counter them they will lose their meaning to exist right?  Wrong.  In order for that to work, legitimate businesses selling things like pot have to keep prices lower than what a gang is selling their pot for.  People want to get a good deal, so if gangs are cheaper to buy from, they will go to the gang.  It is that simple.  Issue is though, gangs pay no taxes making it harder to accomplish for they keep 100% of the money made.  So in order to undercut gangs, allowing people to grow their own weed in their backyard will aid in undercutting them as why go to a gang or a legal dispensary when you can grow your pot for free.  The two part legal selling of pot (for while you are waiting for your weed to grow) for very low prices and the free pot you can grow yourself completely undercuts the gang's business and thus they no longer can support themselves financially (pot is still 60% of the drug trade last I checked), thus breaking up the gang.

Another thing to capitalize on is that pot at legal dispensaries and pharmacies is safer to buy than a gang’s pot.  No risk of being ripped off or other chemicals and substances mixed in.  Pot dispensaries should be allowed to advertise (yes it is a free speech issue so they should be allowed) so that people will go away from the gangs out of fear for their own safety.

Conclusion:  Yes I am in favor of legalizing pot and other drugs as well (see past issues on the how and why).  As such, meeting the criteria for killing off drug gangs and even bankrupting them is something that should be embraced as these gangs commit or perpetuate much of the crime in the United States (in part as illegal drugs are a lucrative business and there is a lack of job opportunities in some places).  We can defeat gangs and turn our culture around, all we got to do is try.