While it is self-serving, considering that Columbia is the largest producer of cocaine in the world, their president isn't wrong about dismantling the drug business, is he?
“If you want peace, you have to dismantle the business. It could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine.”
Gustavo Petro
Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, and the "war on drugs" has been an abject failure. Well, it wasn't a failure for the CIA of course, who were financing their operations by pushing illicit drugs into poor neighbourhoods. And now, the largest drug killer in the US is fentanyl, which was developed by pharmaceuticals. Not to mention the role of Perdue Pharma which created oxycontin, systematically pushed it into the market through a small amount of unscrupulous doctors, and killed hundreds of thousands of people, affecting millions upon millions of connected lives. While the Sackler family who owned and then rebranded Purdue Pharma, never saw the inside of a jail cell and instead run a charitable foundation.
Is cocaine really so bad?
Nope.
Like anything, it could be seen as a gateway drug into harder drugs, but ultimately, everything is a gateway into the next level, but it doesn't mean people walk through that gate. Lots and lots of people smoke weed, but will never do another drug. Many people drink alcohol, which has a much more devastating effect on society, but that is fine. There really is no consistency in the legislation, is there?
Legalise it?
In a recent story from Finland, a country where all kinds of recreational drugs (except alcohol) are highly criminalised, a news service with access to the parliament Christmas party in November 2024, wiped down surfaces in the toilet cubicles at parliament house. They found traces of MDMA and cocaine. Seems that at least for that night, the legislators did some research into the topic.
I guess the reporters (state funded) won't be invited back to the next Christmas party.
Perhaps the Department of DOGE can defund another government organisation.
As of 2024, the DEA maintains 241 domestic offices in 23 divisions, and 93 foreign offices in 69 countries. With a budget exceeding $3 billion, DEA employs 10,169 people, including 4,924 special agents and 800 intelligence analysts.
While I have never been to the US, from the images I see from some major cities, it looks like a zombie apocalypse has infected half the population. Maybe these images are cherrypicked and stories sensationalised, but I am pretty sure that there are plenty of problems, in plenty of cities. Combine this with poverty and lack of opportunity, and a suburb or city can spiral.
But, those addicts aren't using cocaine, are they?
They are on the cheapest trash, for the biggest high. Cocaine isn't that kind of drug, which is why in the seventies and eighties it became popular with lawyers, celebrities and politicians and was even pushed by the media. There weren't' real problems with it until crack cocaine hit the streets in the mid-80s, and swept through the ghettos. There is a difference between a party drug used in discos, and ones that knock you out to take take away the pain of life.
Legalisation not only reduces the amount of criminal activity, but it also means that consumers are safer, and legitimate businesses can be developed, in a similar way to cannabis has in the US, and other countries. It might not be "sold like wine" but perhaps there is a middle ground that would cut the profits out of the criminal cartels, or incentivise them to go legit. This way, Columbia likely wouldn't be the largest exporter of cocaine for long, as there would be more competition, as well as more tax generation.
Seems crazy?
Has anyone not become an addict because it was illegal? Addiction and even the usage of a lot of recreational drugs aren't because of the drug itself, but the state of society. For many, like alcohol, drugs are there to enhance good times, but also avoid bad times, which is why so many of the addicts and overdose deaths are coming from middle-class environments. People are suffering. When people suffer, they look to "not suffer" and if a pill offers that relief, most will take it. About 20% of the overdose deaths in the US come from prescription drugs.
There is an opportunity cost to wage a largely unsuccessful war on drugs, because all of those resources that are mostly ineffective, could be used elsewhere to make a difference instead. Perhaps, rather than criminalising cocaine, they should be using the resources to improve the lives of people instead. And remember, while the DEA only costs 3 billion to operate, there are a hundred other agencies and organisations involved, not to mention the prison systems filled with drug-related criminals to pay for.
I have no horse in the race.
However, criminalisation never works and only drives issues underground to create a market out of the direct spotlight, but spills onto the streets in crime, violence and murder. I reckon it is time to try something else than what has been happening around the world for a very long time, with the problems only getting worse, and affecting more and more people.
Spending on cannabis, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine by Americans reached nearly $150 billion in 2016, with a large proportion of spending coming from the small share of people who use drugs on a daily or near-daily basis, according to a new RAND Corporation report. Researchers estimate that from 2006 to 2016, the total amount of money spent by Americans on these four drugs fluctuated between $120 billion and $145 billion each year. By contrast, a different analysis finds that spending on alcohol in the U.S. was estimated to be $158 billion in 2017.
America, the land of the chemically confident!
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
