<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>drawkbox</author><text>The War on Drugs is now taking down free press in other countries, it is has gone too far for too long.&lt;p&gt;It is essentially funding terror and when you see the billions being made in only a few states such as Colorado with 1+ billion in 2016 [1]. Large amounts of wealth, probably 50-100+ billion going to cartels in the south annually to fund very bad things.&lt;p&gt;Prohibition always creates a criminal black market that becomes uncontrollable when there is a large demand for a product that is illegal. Better to make it legal, remove the revenue for cartels and use some for taxes and lots of jobs in the US. Colorado already has 20k jobs from ending prohibition on marijuana, that could be a 200k nationwide job creator. Legal markets, education, rehabilitation and safe use could also provide many jobs.&lt;p&gt;Legal marijuana markets in the US are already at such high growth rates that they rival the dot com boom growth [2]. It makes pro-business and safety sense to legalize and make it a health issue not a criminal one, because the criminalization of it is creating very bad blow back and funding terror essentially, destroying privacy and lives along the way. The punishment of non-violent drug users,  enforcement and resulting black market criminals are way worse than the act and it is cruel and unusual punishment on individuals and people now on a massive scale worldwide.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;marijuana-tax-revenue-hit-200-million-in-colorado-as-sales-pass-1-billion-2017-02-10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;marijuana-tax-revenue-hit-2...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.abc.net.au&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2017-01-04&amp;#x2F;legal-marijuana-sales-bigger-than-dot-com-boom&amp;#x2F;8161218&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.abc.net.au&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2017-01-04&amp;#x2F;legal-marijuana-sales-...&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain><item><author>matt_wulfeck</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;us&lt;/i&gt;, the USA, that is causing this paper to shutdown. The cartels are financed by the insatiable drug appetite of its close neighbor. Our inability and&amp;#x2F;or unwillingness to legalize recreational drugs is the feeding tube for these vicious groups.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Mexican Newspaper Shuts Down, Saying It Is Too Dangerous to Continue</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/world/americas/el-norte-closes-mexican-newspaper.html</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>2_listerine_pls</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s surprisingly simple to locate the plantations using LIDAR + spectrometry. Even easier in Afghanistan, where fields are cultivated in the open. It&amp;#x27;s so well documented that the UNDOC provides an anual report with the amount in acres. I could go on, but this is enough to make one wonder why they aren&amp;#x27;t being stopped.</text><parent_chain><item><author>matt_wulfeck</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;us&lt;/i&gt;, the USA, that is causing this paper to shutdown. The cartels are financed by the insatiable drug appetite of its close neighbor. Our inability and&amp;#x2F;or unwillingness to legalize recreational drugs is the feeding tube for these vicious groups.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Mexican Newspaper Shuts Down, Saying It Is Too Dangerous to Continue</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/world/americas/el-norte-closes-mexican-newspaper.html</url></story>