In some of my spare time today (because I’m a tool and this is what I do), I was pondering the idea of drug legalization, especially in light of America’s recent skirmishes with Mexican drug cartels. Now, I really want to support drug legalization, as the main arguments of civil libertarians who purport the idea make perfect sense to me. If drugs are legalized, the prison population decreases, less money goes into jails and prisons, and the taxpayer saves a pretty penny. Also, it should not be the government’s place to legalize morality, which is the way many legalization activists view drug laws. However, there is one thing holding me back from support, but this thought is so strong it singlehandedly forces me to support current anti-drug laws. Meaning, of course, if I am convinced that this argument is bunk (which it well may be), I would be in support of legalization.
The thought is this: much of the money from drug sales in the end funds very dangerous criminal organizations, from the mafia and street gangs here in the United States to paramilitary groups in Latin America, and even the Taliban in Afghanistan. Drug laws of course make the sales of drugs illegal, meaning these organizations have to invest a lot more time and probably money into disguising their operation. Thus, fewer resources are available for things the groups actually “need”, like more advanced weaponry and training. My fear is that drug legalization in the short term would do two things:
1. It would add a great sense of legitimacy to the economic workings of hostile organizations, meaning less valuable resources would have to be spent hiding illegal activities, and therefore…
2. Give these organizations more resources to devote to the purchase of advanced weaponry and other things which have the potential to harm the citizens of a nation.
In essence, this becomes a national security issue, especially when applied to the growing power of the Mexican drug gangs, which already have vast resources at their disposal despite illegal drugs( of course, much of this is also due to police corruption and inaction on the part of the Mexican government, so it would be unfair to say this is a result of drug sales alone.) Or, on a broader scale, consider the Taliban as aforementioned, who generates a large percentage of their revenue from heroin production from famed Afghan poppies. Imagine giving one of the largest economic workings of a terrorist organization legitimacy in the very country it aims to destroy. They would, quite simply, become a much more dangerous organization than they are now with the new income available for more advance terror tools.
Of course, many would argue that the reason criminal organizations use drugs as such an economic crutch in the first place is because of their very illegality, and I believe this is true. However, it would be unrealistic to alleviate these laws and suddenly expect these groups to change gears. Thus, for now, I think it is best we work with what we have, and perhaps wait until these very dangerous organization wield less clout in issues of American security before we consider legalization.
jmb582 I think your reasoning is very flawed for one reason. These people who are currently producing the drugs that are sold in the U.S. would never be given the opportunity to do so if it was legal. It is preposterous that our country would hand over multi-billion dollar businesses to people who are not apart of the U.S. economic web. Therefore these people would be competition. Most likely illegal competition trying to sell for less than the domestic prices, and they would thus lose a lot of money from this. It would in fact be damaging to these illegal businesses.
Mz9312, I addressed your first point at the very end of the post: If drugs were always legal, dangerous groups would not use them to generate funding. And in the long term, I do believe illegal businesses would be harmed by the competition. My fear is in the SHORT TERM, the granted legitimacy to the industry would make terrorist groups who generate funding from this operation more dangerous than they are now, which is an issue America does not need to deal with RIGHT NOW. As the Taliban and Mexican drug cartels are weakened to the point which they become harmless ( or until the indigenous governments can handle them on their own), it would be a better time to consider legalization.
Based on the attack on tobacco and lack of incentives for agriculture in general, I think marijuana would be a great cash crop to bring into the system, and most likely the government would be unable to justify any excessive “sin taxes” for it. Though as for drug trafficking illicitly, that should be handled the same way illegal breweries, and bathtub gin are handled. Another possibly idea is simply to give the Native Americans sole control of marijuana as a crop (as some sort of affirmative action type thing), and they could supply it to retailers. However, unlike cigarettes, they would be required to charge a tax on their wares.
NativeAmericansInTheCieling: “I” before “E” except after “C”. The government finds “sin taxes” easy to approve, especially if the tax is on something previously immoral to the Conservative crowd. Not that they’re in power any more.
Mz9312 & Jmb582: The legalization of drugs in the US would take years to approve if most of the House and Senate had not just been voted Democrat a few months ago, but, it still may take a couple years because of groups with aversion to drug use, for their own reasons. The criminal organizations would be struck by legalization, seeing as we could grow the components for nearly any drug in US soil, but they have other enterprises in which to gain funds. Then again, some of you have recently finished high school, and know how much they ingrain the evil of alcohol, sex and, yes, drugs too, into the students in Health and Science classes. If drugs were legalized, the use of them would be extremely limited to private property and special clubs and bars.