"legalized outfits would be co-opted by the drug cartels and used to launder money"
If you were looking to launder money, why would you pick a front that probably had some of the most intense government scrutiny of any business in the country?
Furthermore, do you see many legal aspirin manufacturers co-opted by illegal aspirin cartels? Beer manufacturers co-opted by illegal beer cartels?
Organized crime has been getting in to cigarette smuggling as high cigarette taxes have made legal cigarettes prohibitively expensive and created a black market for them. But this problem did not exist when cigarettes were plentiful and cheap.
We should learn the lesson here and keep legalized drugs plentiful and cheap, so that organized crime has no incentive to get involved and there's no demand for a black market.
The point of laundering money at legal marijuana outfit would be getting caught, showing the public that there is a permanent 'criminal nature' to drugs such as marijuana.
I'm not saying this makes any sort of business sense, it's just a way of influencing public perception.
If you were looking to launder money, why would you pick a front that probably had some of the most intense government scrutiny of any business in the country?
Furthermore, do you see many legal aspirin manufacturers co-opted by illegal aspirin cartels? Beer manufacturers co-opted by illegal beer cartels?
Organized crime has been getting in to cigarette smuggling as high cigarette taxes have made legal cigarettes prohibitively expensive and created a black market for them. But this problem did not exist when cigarettes were plentiful and cheap.
We should learn the lesson here and keep legalized drugs plentiful and cheap, so that organized crime has no incentive to get involved and there's no demand for a black market.