Decriminilisation of drugs will diminish organised crime

On the side of the opposition we see no reason why legalizing drugs should force the existing drug lords exit the market. The proposition has written that somehow all the evil problems connected with the black market for drugs will disappear overnight after the plan is implemented, but didn't give us any mechanism how this could work. We believe that the most probable scenario is even worse than the status quo. Those drug lords that are getting high revenues from drug dealing on the black market now will remain in this business after the legalization. If after paying all the taxes and other costs operation still brings them benefits, there is a huge incentive for them to remain. The business is profitable and they have all the means (capital, contacts, infrastructure, know how) to operate in it. Taking into account that corruption for these people is not new, it is hard to imagine that any competition will enter the market. After the plan is implemented these people will only say "thank you" to the government, since now they don't have to worry about getting into jail for drug dealing. OK, we concede that, under the status quo, black market for drugs is a problem we have to face and deal with. However, their assertion that all black markets will disappear overnight is ridiculous. We have seen several examples of this in other industries. After the restrictions on guns were implemented black market has developed together with the legal one in this sphere. There is black market of alcohol and tobacco, although these substances are legal. The reason why some people buy these goods on the black market is because they are cheaper there, since they are free from excise tax. Criminals are happy to satisfy this demand and earn some revenues, thus the black market is developing. Under this plan it is still possible that the black market of drugs remains and it this case no problem named by the proposition will be solved. We see little connection between theft or blackmail and the black market of drugs. The proposition has failed to explain that. They could have meant that these activities are done by the same organizations that are involved in drug dealing and the main revenue of these organizations is the revenue from drugs, thus they could finance theft and blackmailing. If this is the case, we have tackled it above that these organizations most likely will never leave this profitable market. However, even if we take away revenues from drugs, these organizations will still be able to involve in theft and blackmailing. Moreover, they will have a higher incentive to do that in order to compensate the loss coming from the exit from the profitable industry (drug dealing). In other words if they lose one source of income, they could push harder on other sources, thus increasing the crime rates. We see also no reason that drug pushing will disappear. Now it will just take a legal form, which more efficient. No one offers to buy alcohol an the streets, not because it is banned, but because it is inefficient. The most efficient way of "alcohol pushing" is in shops by different offers, discounts or other means of direct marketing. Under this plan we believe that drug pushing will take the same form of "two for the price of one" offers. The reason why people in the US use drugs more than people in Netherlands is not necessarily because of the drug legalization in the Netherlands. This could be accounted for other reasons such as that people in the US have higher income (GDP per capita) [[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html]] With this we mean that the proposition first of all didn't state any sources where could we find these striking facts about the usage of drugs in the US and the Netherlands, and, secondly, even if we see the facts they have to show the direct correlation between these two factors (legalization of drugs and the use of them). Otherwise, these facts could be accounted for other reasons.