crackonomics.com

Goals of Drug Prohibition

Reduced Supply
The primary stated goal of drug prohibition was to reduce the supply of illegal drugs and rehabilitate drug users. It was expected the threat of a prison term for using and/or selling drugs would motivate people to not use drugs.

Children
Another goal of drug prohibition was to prevent the usage of drugs by children.

Health
Some advocates of drug prohibition argue that particular drugs should be illegal because they are harmful. The U.S. government has argued that illegal drugs are “far more deadly than alcohol” saying “although alcohol is used by seven times as many people as illicit drugs, the number of deaths induced by those substances is not far apart”.

Gateway Drugs
The US Government has argued that certain drugs (such as cannabis) act as gateways to use of harder drugs such as heroin, either because of social contact or because of an increasing search for a better high. Drug prohibition is intended to reduce the supply of gateway drugs.

Crime
It was believed that if the number of drug users were reduced, then crime rates would decrease.

Other
If you have other suggestions as to why Drug Prohibition was enacted, please add your comments below.

Unintended Consequences of Drug Prohibition

There are many that believe drug prohibition is not effective at reducing the supply of drugs (See article). Declining price of illegal drug street prices and increased concentration and purity are indirect examples that the supply of drugs has not decreased. In addition to not reducing the supply of drugs, there has been significant blowback (i.e., unintended consequences) to drug prohibition.

Crackonomics
There is a huge cost to enforce drug prohibition and yet, due to high margins, enforcement does not reduce the supply of illegal drugs. The cost of enforcing drug prohibition can be segmented into direct and indirect costs. The direct costs are required to implement drug prohibition policies (i.e., DEA) and indirect costs are consequences related to the policies of drug prohibition (i.e., theft by drug users to support their addiction). Shown below are order of magnitude costs associated with each line item. As shown below, the order of magnitude cost of drug prohibition, by my calculations, significantly exceeds $195 billion per year. This is in addition to the costs to society of drug abuse.

If Drug Prohibition was repealed, these funds could then be used for education, treatment, rehabilitation, housing, medicare, jobs, reducing budget deficits or a combination of the above. It is not clear as to what will happen to drug usage rates if drugs were legalized. Total usage will probably increase, however, little research has been initiated to determine the extent addiction rates will increase. However, prison does not appear to be a deterrent to drug addicts and does not solve the addiction problem.

In addition to these costs, there does not appear to be a reasonable approach to calculate the costs of violence, corruption and loss of civil liberties associated with Drug Prohibition.

Violence
The black market for drugs is totally unregulated. When there is a dispute between drug distributors, the dispute is frequently resolved with violence. The majority of the violence is between the gangs; however, innocent bystanders have been killed. Milton Friedman estimated that over 10,000 deaths a year in the US are caused by the criminalization of drugs. In 2008, Mexico experienced over 5,000 deaths a year related to drug violence.

The violence of drug prohibition also breeds fear. When we constantly read in the newspapers or watch the television and hear of a drive by shooting, we feel society is becoming a more dangerous place. With more fear, there is a tendency to build walls, have more guns for protection and develop a siege like mentality.

Drug Cartels are gaining strength. Just like McDonalds started out with one burger shop in California and now has storefronts throughout America, Drug Cartels are setting up shop in towns all across the US. Their financial and political power grows each year. In 40 years, is it possible that the United States will face Drug Cartel violence similar to what Mexico is currently experiencing?

Crime
Approximately 90% of muggings and burglaries are drug related. Many addicts are desperate to get their next “fix” and will steal property to pay for their drug purchases. It has been estimated that for every $200 of cash the addict gets, $1000 worth of goods will have been stolen.

Children
One of the goals of drug prohibition is to reduce the likelihood that children use drugs. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Due to financial incentives, drug dealers are motivated to get as many customers, as early, as possible. Drug dealers develop relationships with school children and coax them to try drugs to increase the demand pipeline. Surveys of school children show that marijuana is as easily obtained as beer.

In addition, the forbidden fruit of illegal drugs can be a motivator for teenagers to experiment with drugs.

Racial Oppression
There is speculation that opium, marijuana and cocaine usage was criminalized to prevent Chinese, Mexicans and Blacks, respectively, from being a menace to society. For example, only 13% of illegal drug users are African Americans, yet they make up 67% of those sent to prison for drug offenses (See article).

Growers
Many countries (i.e., Afghanistan, Columbia, Mexico, etc) that grow crops to manufacture illegal drugs have been politically destabilized due to the strength of the illegal drug trade. Drug Prohibition is the reason Drug Cartels are very powerful. In Mexico, open war between the cartels and all levels of government has killed more than 5,000 people in 2008 alone—about as many casualties as the United States has sustained in almost six years of war in Iraq. This violence already threatens to spill into the United States and to destabilize Mexico’s political institutions (See article). According to a report by the US Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats, Mexico bears consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse due to the sustained assault by Drug Cartels.

Corruption
The financial gain from selling illegal drugs is significant. These profits are used to bribe DEA, Customs, Police, Lawyers, Judges, Prison Guards, Politicians, etc to ensure the illegal drug trade operates smoothly. Corruption reduces the public’s confidence in our public institutions.

Scarce Police Resources
Police frequently do not have the resources to handle major violent crimes due to resources being overtaxed in dealing with the huge demands of drug prohibition.

Prison “University”
The United States had approx 5% of the world’s population and yet has approx 25% of the world’s prisoners. Over 20% of prisoners are in jail due to drug possession charges. The construction and operation of prisons is a growth business in the US. In addition, young people are being sent to prison for drug possession and they “graduate” from a prison “university” that hardens them as individuals and in many cases teaches them additional skills to be a more dangerous member of society. Approximately 60% of prisoners violate their paroles and are returned to prison. This vicious cycle has a tremendous cost to society.

Another casualty are children. There are approximately 340,000 children with a parent incarcerated for drug possession. Children of prisoners are 6-7 times more likely to end up in prison than children of non-prisoners, increasing the cycle of poverty and crime.

Health
The health consequences of illicit drugs are severe. Many addicts run the risk of HIV and Hepatitis due to sharing dirty syringes. The obsessive search for money to purchase drugs leads to neglect of personal health. Tuberculosis (TB) is now a major problem among the drug dependent (See article).

The black market is unregulated and consequently the product quality of illegal drugs is variable. Many an addict has been seriously ill or died from injecting/ingesting contaminated drugs.

Lost Productivity
Switzerland has shown over a 10-year study that heroin addicts can live a productive life by treating their drug addiction as a disease rather than a crime. Many addicts that live in a country with drug prohibition laws, end up being part of the underground that survives on begging and illegal activities (i.e., prostitution, theft, etc) to support their habits.

In addition, the time spent incarcerated, is lost productivity for the economy. When the felon is released from prison it is very difficult to get a job with a criminal record. In addition, convicted drug offenders are often not eligible for federal funding to obtain education. There are few opportunities for the convicted drug addict to change their life and become a productive member of society.

Reduced Civil Liberties
Freedom includes our right to manage our body and mind in any way we see fit as long as we do not cause harm to others. Why should the state tell us what we put in our bodies, in the sanctuary of our own home, as long as we cause no harm to others?

In an attempt to give an advantage to the police to arrest drug users and drug dealers, SWAT No Knock Raids allow police to knock down the door of a suspected drug user/seller and barge into their home with no warning. More than 10% of these raids have been done on the wrong house (See article). In some cases, innocent people have been shot.

Under drug prohibition, police need only “probable cause” before they can seize and sell property of a ‘suspected’ drug dealer or user. This forfeiture law has become a major source of funds for law enforcement agencies as the value of property seized has soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars. There have been numerous cases of inappropriate seizures being made. It does not take much imagination as to how this policy can lead to abuse.

Environmental
To reduce the supply of drugs, many Governments have eradicated crops of marijuana and cocoa plants. Square miles of rain forest have been defoliated to kill cocoa plants. This action has resulted in significant damage to the land. In Columbia alone, 540,000 acres of coca were eradicated in 2007 (See article).

Untraceable Financing
The black market of selling illicit drugs creates the opportunity for untraceable money to be used for terrorism and other unsavory activities. An example is the Contra Affair of 1996 that was investigated by journalist Gary Webb. “The CIA was suspected of aiding Nicaraguans who had allegedly smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. According to Webb, the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras. In 2004, Webb was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head, which the coroner’s office judged a suicide” (See article).

There have been a number of accusations that Al Qaeda is, in part, financed by illegal drug profits.

Other
If you can think of other adverse consequences to Drug Prohibition, please use the comment section below to add your thoughts.