The profit motive [a p.s. update]

OneFly over at Outta the Cornfield, on the violence in Juarez:

Outta the Cornfield: Iraq Is In The Air Of Ciudad Juárez

The Copernican theory - that the earth circles the sun - was devised to help fix the calendar... but it had a bunch of unforeseen positive consequences: it explained the seasons; it led directly to Kepler's laws of planetary motion, & to Galileo's mechanics... which led more-or-less directly to Newton's theory of gravitation.

In much the same way, legalizing drugs - in addition to pretty much stopping the deadly violence of the illegal drug trade - would doubtless have many other unforeseen positive ramifications. (... for example, Afghanistan could have a healthy, self-supporting economy!)

Recall, Al Capone's violence was fueled by, enabled by, created by Prohibition. The profit motive is strong.

update: p.s. -... and you'd think that the Repugs, with their strongly individualistic, "keep the damn government outta my life" philosophy, would be strong supporters of legalizing drugs. Go figure.