Originally Posted by campimp

i think, although i do not have concrete facts, that a reason why legalizing marijuana would indeed drop the violence at the border is because there are a lot more "mexican gangs" involved in the marijuana trade, while the heroin and cocain trade is a bit more specialized, with the violence involved being more constrained to within mexico and not spiling across the border.

the cocaine and heroin cartels are not sending hundreds of smugglers across each day. they are better financed, and more interested in doing "smart" smuggling. marijuana smugglers have more of the "they cant stop us all" attitude and therefore try to push as much through as they can all the time, because if they lose a couple shipments now and there its not that big of a loss, and therefore there are more of the lower level men located close to both sides of the borders.

i could be wrong, thats how i would imagine it plays out though