Winning The Drug War By Ending It

Over the weekend, George Will remarked:

Eighty percent of the revenue of the Mexican cartels is marijuana. If you really want to go after the Mexican cartelsand I’m not saying that’s the only criterion for public policy you’d legalize marijuana.

Jacob Sullum sees this as a small step forward:

It's not clear that Will welcomes legal gambling, legal prostitution, and legal pot, but at least he understands how prohibition strengthens organized crime. And even if he doesn't support legalization yet, at least it's in his vocabulary. Unfortunately, Will did not stop there. "There is one problem," he said later in the discussion, reporting that he had learned from a recent conversation with drug czar Gil Kerlikowske that "marijuana is getting much better." He did not explain why that's a problem.