[scurvydog]

Let's say you sell apples and you also sell oranges. You have revenues of $10 million from selling apples and revenues of $10 million from selling oranges.

Your business expenses are just $5 million, so your hard work over the year has really paid off in the business you've built, with you looking at a cool $15 million in profits each year.

The US government makes it illegal to sell oranges. You can now make $50 million selling oranges, because you're the only supplier, but there's also a 50% chance that you'll be targeted by the US government, subject to felony arrests, and will lose all your business (even your legal apple business) if nabbed.

These are your choices:

1)Abide by the law, grit your teeth and abandon your orange business, and console yourself with just selling apples and making a risk-free $5 million in profits each and every year.

2) Flaunt the law and potentially make $45 million in profits per year, but with a 50% chance of going busto and losing everything.

Most people (well, those that aren't degenerate gamblers) are going to choose #1 and ditch the orange business. The fact that you have significant, legitimate business that doesn't involve selling oranges is a strong motivation to exit the business of selling oranges.