It certainly reduced the demand for illegal alcohol.
Well, legalization of murder would certainly reduce the demand for "illegal" murders as well...
The drug cartels will have to find another way to make money? Sure, they might do that, but we can at least eliminate their main source of income. Legalization of alcohol dealt a big blow to the mob.
But there is no actual assurance that you would eliminate their source of income. There is a lot more to legalization than simply saying "Ok, it is legal now."
You have to grant licenses, probably do numerous studies, figure out how to regulate and tax it, produce all the drugs to meet demand domestically... the list goes on and on
Why should they care whether or not they are "off the radar of the government?" No, they will get their fix the easiest way they can.
Whether legal or not, drug use is going to be frowned upon. Higher income people who want to get a fix could easily go "off the radar" to avoid the scarlet letter that would most likely come with public drug use.
Do you want your politicians, business leaders etc going to the nearest medical facility to get their cocaine fix, legal or not?
yes, a few do so as a last resort when they can't afford necessary medications, but that's another issue.
Agreed, it is another issue.
Why wold they do that? It makes no sense.
It makes plenty of sense. As I said, even if legalized, drug use is going to carry a social stigma, and there will always be people willing to pay a premium to get their fix and avoid the stigma. As I said, people will want their politicians, business leaders, community leaders, teachers etc going to a medical facility of pharmacy to get their fix, legal or not.
That is not what happened when alcohol was legalized. How many go to a moonshiner for booze?
Your premise is that legalizing drugs will eliminate the cartels. It is not a true analogy to compare how many people still go to moonshiners, because moonshiners are not the equivalent of the cartel.. the mob would the equivalent of the cartel...
So, for your assertion to be true in this example, legalization of alcohol would need to shut down the mob, which it did not.