The Paradox of the War Against Drugs

Easily, those who would be most set against the legalization of Drugs would be the Drug Lords themselves. It is the illegality of drugs that keeps them in business. The money is tax free and the entire industry is completely unregulated. It goes far in explaining why the competition is so intense to seek placement in that Illicit Industry that the people are killing each other for positions and markets. Need we wonder that no legal industry has quite that same level of intensity. Being made illegal is not so much a deterrent as it is the primary condition that establishes the attractiveness of the commerce.

Of course the Drug Industry cannot stand alone… there is the minor problem of what they call ‘laundering’ all of the cash money, as the modern Western Banking Establishments require explanations on where money comes from. But here enters in the Gaming or Gambling Industries which allow any careful player to almost break even. One can take any amount of ill-gotten moneys into a Casino, cash it in for chips, and while losing a reasonable percentage, soon cash out with perfectly clean and legitimate ‘winnings’. Yes, one needs to pay cash on these winnings, but that is in part what makes them legitimate. And this is to say that the Governments who tax these Casinos are in fact part of the money making chain of the illicit Drug Industry.

Additionally, there is simply so much cash involved in the illicit drug trade, and then in the gambling industry, which is impossible really to regulate properly since they sell no traceable product, having no inventory to account for, so that they can declare whatever profits or losses they wish to declare, and who could ever know the difference. Essentially this creates a great deal of free and unaccountable money.

Now, let us ask ourselves why nearly every single Politician in the Western World, liberal or conservative, Right or Left, is totally enthusiastic toward maintaining this War against Drugs. Well, it must be obvious. A great deal of this unaccounted for money must be going into their political coffers.

And then there is Law Enforcement itself. You see, Law Enforcement does not even pretend to claim that they have stopped the import and sale of illicit drugs in their jurisdiction. You see, in effect, when a product is outlawed and made to be a contraband item, then it automatically creates a Black Market in which the Police become the Gate Keepers – the unofficial licensers of the commerce. Indeed, this effect is tacitly acknowledged in many developing nations and communities where the local police are paid only token wages and salaries, while they are expected to make their real livings by controlling those areas of commerce that had been outlawed specifically in order to generate revenues for the police departments. So it is that in countries that culturally condone gambling, prostitution, drugs and alcohol, that these commodities are made illegal anyway, as it subsidizes their police forces. Indeed, in Mexico many of the police have no compunction about driving around openly in stolen vehicles. In their frame of Cultural Reference, to be a policeman simply makes one a King of Crime. And so we hardly need to wonder that nobody tries nearly so hard to make an honest living.

Then we may consider Public Policy. In most of the Western World, even in the developed nations, we have economies regulated by the Banking Interests so that there is a real level of unemployment that resides at about 10 to 12% (yes the ‘rate’ of unemployment is lower, but that ‘rate’ of unemployment considers only how many people lose their jobs over a certain period, but then little effort goes toward calculating what percentage of the population then remains chronically without work). Now, when more than 10% of the people have no income, exactly how do the politicians suppose that these jobless individuals can keep buying food, paying rent, etc? Well, it simply must be assumed that there is some sort of an underground economy that is covering for this high level of unemployment. So it is that in America’s Inner Cities, where unemployment levels approach 40% that the illicit Drug Commerce, Prostitution, Auto Theft are frankly encouraged. Yes, arrests are made occasionally, but the prison terms are made intentionally short and bearable, and indeed serve as schools of crime where all of the criminals involved can compare notes and form their business connections. Think of the Ocean’s Eleven movies, but on a Macro-Cosmic scale.

Then there is the Vested Self-Interest of the Prison Industry itself. In America there are more Prison Guards – correctional officers they call themselves – than there are Teachers and Doctors put together. Indeed, the reason why America has such crappy standards in both Education and in Medical Coverage is because so many resources are tied up in their Prisons. More than 20% of America’s population live behind bars. Oh, we may also think of the costs of prison construction. Then there are the Criminal Lawyers. America has more lawyers than engineers, mostly because they need hundreds of thousands of lawyers to prosecute Drug Offenders, and then hundreds of thousands of additional lawyers to defend these same people. For every criminal there are two lawyers, or actually three, since there must also be a Judge, who could actually do all of the work himself, but sits on his hands while the other two take up time and money squabbling for effect. Indeed, it would create a crisis in employment for these otherwise useless ‘Suits’ if drugs were ever legalized. Unemployed Lawyers and Prison Guards would swamp our towns and cities. But it would allow Society to reallocate these resources. Those of the Right Wing could go off and die for their Country in thinly veiled Petroleum Wars, and those of a liberal bent could become health care providers, engineers and teachers. Yes, there would have to be a period of adjustment while they grew accustomed to not being quite so useless.

It should now be perfectly clear that there are so many vested interests involved in maintaining the War Against Drugs, that it should be considered almost as the Foundation for our Modern Democratic States – the proceeds funding the Political Establishment, subsidizing Unemployment, Law Enforcement, the Legal Industry… indeed, the free money finds itself almost everywhere. Thus it is that there is not a single political voice advocating the legalization of Drugs.

But let us consider the legalization of drugs simply in theory. First, legalization should go beyond simply allowing for the legalization of the present list of contraband products. As pleasant as the existing range of drugs are, if the Pharmaceutical Giants – the Large Drug Companies – were permitted to apply themselves to the Recreational Drug Market, then we could anticipate a far better range of products – drugs without all of the stupid and unhealthy side-effects of the accidental biologically based drugs that we see now. Indeed, now the Pharmaceutical Companies have their hands tied. One suspects a certain Puritanical bias in the Drug Regulators. For instance, it must be remarkable that none of the Drugs now being designed to deal with Depression do anything to make anybody happy, that is euphoric. One would think that being a little bit ‘high’ would be the perfect answer to depression. Indeed, on the street there are a great many simple drugs that can induce harmless but happy states of euphoria. But the Drug Regulators absolutely forbid any drug that can be described as ‘pleasing’. And so it is that all of the drugs now being sold for depression are actually more likely to induce states of lethargy or stupor. Indeed, they are depressing in and of themselves, and so it is that the Puritans of State permit them.

This Puritanical Bent in Western Societies is curious in that it is relatively recent phenomena. One only needs to go back in history just a few centuries to see that Great Britain and Europe had gone to war against China for not permitting the trade in Drugs – the Opium Wars were conducted in order to protect Europe’s legal trade in Drugs. Apparently, since then, certain interested parties figured out that the industry would be more attractive if it were made illicit… effectively turned into a Police State Monopoly, which is really what contraband black markets are anyway.


Anyway, though the Vested Interests of Corruption would take a big hit, for Society in general there could be many advantages to Drug Legalization. We should consider first legalizing Drugs – all of the stupid drugs we have now, simply in order to shut down the Cartels. But subsequently we should then allow the Pharmaceutical Companies to create and sell any number of concoctions just so long as they are not absolutely poisonous. The benefit here would be that the legitimate money involved in the Legal Pharmaceutical Trade in Recreational Drugs would be taxable and so would add to the resources of the legitimate economies and social infrastructures. Of course, the Bankers would have to rearrange their policies concerning what they believe to be acceptable levels for Unemployment, because we need to realize that the Illegal Drug Industry is in fact one of the World’s largest Employers.

Then we should consider that without their hands tied that these Giants of the Pharmaceutical Industry would eventually be able to conjure up some pretty interesting pills… again with simple market forces almost guaranteeing that annoying side-effects would be kept to a minimum. So the work-a-day world of keen sober efficiency would not be too adversely effected – people would still want to keep their jobs and be sober enough to do them (as they do now with the wide availability of illicit drugs). Only people would have a bit more help with enjoying their leisure time.