Violence! Drug Dealers! Oh My!

The fact that marijuana would still be cheaper legally than illegally is a reason for frequent users to vote, but another argument for the cheaper price tag is cutting down on VIOLENCE FROM MEXICO.

Mexican drug cartels are a serious problem in both Mexico and California, and in the image above, the areas in red are the ones that experience the most conflict. As you can see, several of those areas either border our country or are near to it.

“Drug Cartels in Mexico control approximately 70% of the foreign narcotics that flow into the United States,” from AllAcademic.com. That means that Mexico also acts as the main foreign supplier of cannabis to the United States.

The U.S. Justice Department considers the Mexican drug cartels as the greatest organized crime threat to the United States (from the National Drug Threat Assessment of 2009 from the National Drug Intelligence Center)

Not only would severing the Mexican drug warriors main resource in California cut down on violence, it would reduce illegal immigration, transport of dirty money, reduction of costs to California’s defense budget and allow our police to focus more on crimes that really matter. Of course all of these reasons could also be applied to our Southern neighbors, who need help even more severely in their drug war:

Mayor Irwin, Thousand Oaks is not safe from Mexican drug warriors. Nowhere is. Just because our county is not located near Tijuana like San Diego does not mean we can assume safety. Supporting Proposition 19 will damage these cartels in a way that the Border Defense cannot, and will keep drug-traffickers out of California.