The best strategy I think is to simultaneously eliminate their revenue (legalizing drugs, and making sure US production of quality crops ramps up quickly, etc.) AND crack down on all their "legal-illegal interfaces" -- punish anyone in the police who helps them, anyone in the banking industry, etc.
At one time you're destroying their revenue side AND their cost side. Their "comparative advantage" is in senseless violence, so they're probably easier to challenge on other fronts, but at the end there may be a role for targeted killing of any organized nexuses remaining. But use economics to weaken them first.
It also seems insane to me that the whole Mexican drug industry is only a $5b/yr thing. It costs just the state of California more than that per year in law enforcement and prisons.
I'm also curious just how low the price per pound for "BC bud" quality could go, if it were totally licit and you had serious agribusiness stepping up. $440/pound quoted in the article is a bit below the Humboldt price for outdoor of decent quality, at least in relatively small quantities, but if it got grown like lettuce, it should be even cheaper than that. It would be kind of ironic replacing illegal Mexican ditchweed with US legal pot harvested by illegal/undocumented migrant workers (just like other crops..)
At one time you're destroying their revenue side AND their cost side. Their "comparative advantage" is in senseless violence, so they're probably easier to challenge on other fronts, but at the end there may be a role for targeted killing of any organized nexuses remaining. But use economics to weaken them first.
It also seems insane to me that the whole Mexican drug industry is only a $5b/yr thing. It costs just the state of California more than that per year in law enforcement and prisons.
I'm also curious just how low the price per pound for "BC bud" quality could go, if it were totally licit and you had serious agribusiness stepping up. $440/pound quoted in the article is a bit below the Humboldt price for outdoor of decent quality, at least in relatively small quantities, but if it got grown like lettuce, it should be even cheaper than that. It would be kind of ironic replacing illegal Mexican ditchweed with US legal pot harvested by illegal/undocumented migrant workers (just like other crops..)