Victimless crime is blatantly wrong to call drug crime; you don't see who the victim is, so I guess it's understandable you would call it that. Let's just forget the idea that hard drugs other than weed (and maybe shrooms or ecstacy) exist, because you're revolving your statements around harmless drugs. Unless you really mean that cocaine or PCP is less harmful than alcohol.
Alcohol has a culture, cooking applications, and helped society as we formed it exist. The first measurement system (Imperial) came to exist because of alcohol. So dies the concept of currency. Roads, infrastructure, all of it was made to ship beer around. Alcohol gets a pass because of that, like it or not.
These same victims who were destabilized during cold war are suffering in Central America. Weak and without a stable government, they barely have police, let alone armies to handle drug cartels with anti-material grade rifles.
A gang that goes out into the streets guns blazing is going to get mowed down in America. Other countries it is a different story, like in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and now there's even potential in Venezuela due to starvation and unrest.
Whereas here most gangs can't have open power outside of cities like Chicago where the ideal circumstances exist and the people in power are simply too lazy to do anything about it or they're scared of re-election, gangs in Central America are as powerful as the local governments.
These aren't the cartels that industrialized entire central american nations in the 70's. If you made that argument and we were both alive back then, I might have agreed with you. Maybe.
The new generation just beheads cops, soldiers, mayors and legislators on decaying overpasses and they leave the body there as a warning. They invade homes, take what they want, and are idolized for their influence, wealth and power.
These same gangs are testing their luck expanding here in America, and are a rising threat to our country. They haven't hit the level of danger to the public they once did in the 70's, but we learned a valuable lesson from that time. They need to be pushed out, and the best way to fight them is to take away their money.
The only way to make the easy money and power brought on by an industry supporting crime that oppresses literal NATIONS is to make it as unattractive as possible.
We're reaching a point where legalization is the option to de-fund drug cartels, whether the country likes it or not. Currently, however, the only thing keeping these criminals in check is making their game incredibly risky to play by putting your entire future on the line. Yes, even for the purchasers.
You may be thinking, "What about home grows? Or dispensaries? That's victimless." Home grows are risky, uncommon and often used only by their growers. Dispensaries can just as easily fund crime nationally as well as make citizens in their home states happy. Illegally smuggled weed still accounts for as LOW as 80% of weed. Why should a small percentage of outliers make the government soften its stance, especially so early in the game of states legalizing weed? It gives an avenue for actual criminals to avoid punishment, like every other tax loophole our corporations abuse.
If you're trying to imply that these laws are stupid, archaic, and difficult to understand, that's fundamentally wrong regarding drugs. Say whatever you want about other laws, particularly cars, guns, houses, and even taxes, but drugs are cut and dry.
Drugs are not a gray area law that's going to trick you into breaking it, it's a federal crime whos law have supremacy, allowing them to trump state law if needed. The vast majority of people in prison didn't find it sitting on the street corner up for grabs and end up unlawfully searched by the police and incarcerated with such an arrest holding up in court.
Mandatory minimums have been around since before the advent of the internet.
Parents know better, grandparents know better, and it's likely you could ask someone at your average gas station how much an ounce of weed will get you and they'll tell you "Five years" or maybe "Thirty bucks" first.
Almost every form of media has some sort of drug story, even childrens shows have brushed against how illegal and immoral it is to handle drugs.
Literal children know not to get involved with drugs.
Ignorance is no excuse for non-compliance, if it were even a believable excuse in the first place; anything else is willfully breaking the law and should come with consequence. Every drug offender in prison has earned their spot, and should probably remain there even if weed is legalized.
People playing high stakes games that know the odds deserve no sympathy when they lose.
