Posted by Jason
The war on drugs can be said to have begun all the way back in 1914 with the passage of the Harrison Act and escalating over the decades with the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937 and the Daniel Act in 1956. However, the creation of the DEA in 1973 really kicked it into high gear and exponentially increased the amount of money being made from the worldwide illegal drug trade.
Drug money funds terrorist activities all over the world. Now that the Taliban has been effectively crushed, the biggest dangers facing the people of Afghanistan and our troops over there are from renegade warlords being funded by the opium trade. There is some evidence that Al-Qaeda is involved in smuggling opium out of Afghanistan through Pakistan and Iran to the West. The ongoing war in Columbia between rebels and government mercenaries is funded on both sides by the cocaine trade.
Our homeland is less secure because of the number of illegal border crossings related to the drug trade. Mexico, in addition to being a major producer of heroin and marijuana, is the main conduit for drugs entering the U.S. from elsewhere. The massive amounts of money being made have rendered most Mexican officials hopelessly corrupt making it next to impossible for any meaningful cooperation between our governments regarding border control.
Illegal drug profits fuel much of the violent gang activity in our cities and increasingly our suburbs. Children are recruited as runners/dealers because when they are caught they do not face the same penalties as adults. The attempt to catch big time drug dealers by offering lesser sentences to those willing to provide information has hideously backfired because the bigger fish simply end up throwing the feds a few small fish.
I believe that the legalization of drugs under the same regulatory and tax practices that govern alcohol and tobacco would offer the following benefits:
1.) The bottom would drop out of the worldwide illegal drug trade drying up the major source of revenue for terrorist and criminal activities in Afghanistan, Columbia, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, etc.
2.) The pressure on America’s borders would be reduced because much of the illegal border traffic consists of drug runners and people recruited to cultivate and guard marijuana fields in the U.S.
3.) Domestic gang related crime and violence should drop substantially since much of it is fueled by the profits to be made dealing illegal drugs. Removing the profit removes the incentive to commit crimes.
4.) Children much less likely to become involved with drugs and gangs because the incentive for recruiting juveniles is gone once illegality and profit motive removed.
I left off the obvious financial boon from the diversion of funds currently being used for interception of some tiny fraction of the illegal drug trade and the imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders here in the U.S. In addition, the tax revenues would be enormous, certainly comparable to those from nicotine and alcohol. Maybe some of these monies could go towards fighting terrorism and improving homeland security. Or tax cuts for the wealthy, whatever.
In the interests of balance, I have to admit there could be a negative side to full drug legalization. It is likely that there would be a rise in drug use because the law does stop many people from experimenting. However, just because something is legal does not make it acceptable. Someone who is constantly drunk or seldom bathes is unlikely to hold a job or have any friends for long. It is important to realize that laws are not the only answer to societal problems and in fact can erode and impede people’s natural social impulses to belong and gain the satisfaction of family, friends, and personal responsibility. The United States of America survived and thrived for well over a hundred years before we decided that the role of the federal government was to protect us from ourselves. Perhaps, in this time of crisis when the most urgent goal of the federal government is defeating international terrorism and this goal directly conflicts with the war on drugs, we could give the nanny state a rest for a while. What say you fellow citizens?