Violent Mexican drug cartels might as well go into selling lettuce and carrots if Prop 19 passes, the independent RAND Corporation said today. Cannabis’ price drop from passing Prop 19 would make profiting from the drug highly unlikely, RAND researchers said during a conference call, offering more ammo to the Yes on 19 campaign in the closing weeks of the election. “We think [drug gangs] would make about as much money as they make from growing carrots and lettuce. It will be much more like convention agricultural products than an expensive illegal drug. There wouldn’t be large revenues from growing things that are legal,” said the authors of “Reducing Drug Trafficking Revenues and Violence in Mexico: Would Legalizing Marijuana in California Help?” The study was crafted by RAND drug policy expert Beau Kilmer, along with Jonathan P. Caulkins, Brittany M. Bond, Peter H. Reuter.
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