Only few leaders of this market will find the profits worth the risk and thusly the involvement in the black market, as a whole, will decrease. As drugs become more affordable it can also be assumed that there will be a decrease in drug related theft because prices are not too high. Naturally a black market and the crime associated with it will still exist for high potency drugs that are not legalized and also for children who do not meet the age requirement to take drugs, but it will not be as powerful as the one that exists today. .
The current policy allows drug dealers to make millions of dollars without paying taxes on the money they make. The monopoly also allows these leaders to produce large quantities of drugs without any sort of quality control. After legislation, some money will instead go to entrepreneurs and the rest will go to the government. The government can then use these funds to make people more aware of the negative effects of drugs and also to enforce punishment on those who do not abide by the new laws. If legalized, the government can set standards for the quality and potency of drugs, thus ensuring some form of safety. Although some people doubt the fact that consumers will purchase these legalized, low-potency drugs, Prohibition in the 1920's proves otherwise. Once prohibition had been enacted, there had been an increase in the consumption of hard liquor because that was what was available in the black market. A parallel can thus be drawn between the current policy and Prohibition. There is consumption, of high-potency drugs, which may not exist in such a large numbers if drugs are legalized and regulated by the government. .
Legalization will take time to put into place. You will not be able to go the local supermarket and pick up a bag of marijuana on your way to buy bread and milk. Firstly there needs to be a significant amount of money spent on the research of all drugs currently in the market in order to determine which will be legalized and in what form and potency.
