The post Could The End of Prohibition Mean The End of Cartel Violence? appeared first on High Times.
A new study published in The Economic Journal vindicates the optimistic prognosis of cannabis activists that legalizing the herb would de-escalate drug war violence. The study notes a reduction in violence in US states along the Mexican border in recent years, and especially in the counties along the international line. The authors draw a connection to the reduced legal pressure on cannabis in the United States over this same period, thanks to legalization and medical marijuana laws. So could the end of prohibition mean the end of cartel violence?
Crippling the Cartels
The study, released late last year by a team from Pennsylvania State University and the Norwegian School of Economics, is entitled “Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime.” It found that when a border state passed a medical marijuana law, violent crime fell by an average 13%.
“We show that the introduction of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) leads to a decrease in violent crime in states that border Mexico,” reads the abstract. “The reduction in crime is strongest for counties close to the border (less than 350 kilometres) and for crimes that relate to drug trafficking.
In addition, we find that MMLs in inland states lead to a reduction in crime in the nearest border state. Our results are consistent with the theory that decriminalisation of the production and distribution of marijuana leads to a reduction in violent crime in markets that are traditionally controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organisations.”
According to a Jan. 13 write-up on the study in The Guardian, the researchers examined crime data