This is a valid point, but in a free market, the same things that would topple a natural monopoly would topple or disintegrate a cartel.
Such as?
As I said, you have to go through proper channels to get a monopoly in the US. If you don't, the penalties are harsh. But if you do, the benefits are enormous.
So we agree that the market is currently regulated to avoid monopolies then? (And yes, it is regulated to enforce certain monopolies as well.)
They need peaceful means of dispute resolution. Such as arbitration.
By whom? How would this work? Elaborate please...
My point was that the drug market is anything but "unregulated." It's been regulated to death, in fact.
Yeah? Who is doing the regulating in Northern Mexico?
The answer is: nobody. That's the whole point. It's a failed state (in that region).
You can't look at one area in isolate. The profit margins for the cartels are massive becomes the US with it regulation on illegal drugs is the largest importer of said illegal drugs. Billions of dollars worth of drugs flow inward and billions of dollars flow outward to drug states like Mexico, Columbia, etc. The higher purchashing power of Americans becomes a multiplier effect. Americans (on average) have more disposable income thus prices are higher so the cartels gain a massive economic advantage over the state trying to control them. Now if the cartels were legal businesses they likely would use that economic advantage in different ways (supporting candidates, lobbying, making smaller competitors uneconomical, etc) much like major corporations do in the US. However cartels are criminal enterprises. They leaders are already facing life sentances for hundreds of violations of the law. At that point the more efficient use of power is direct ... violence, death, terror.
If the US (for good or bad) legalized drugs do you think Americans would still be buying product on the street corner shipped in from criminal enterprises in Mexico? Hardly. Much like 99.9999999% of Americans don't buy illegal alcohol or tobacco either. It would be mass produced by major corporations, the supply would go up, prices would go down and the economic power of the cartels would be greatly diminished.