Am I the only one who believes that the "war on drugs" is really a federal subsidy for organised crime?
There was once a big difference in the marketing of marijuana and cocaine. Before the war on drugs cocaine was available only through organised crime connections and sold for prices on the order of $2000/ounce. Marijuana at that time was being imported rather casually by a wide variety of small users and sold for approximately $20/ounce.
After all this time the war on drugs has become more of an institution than an experiment. It has proven to be an effective way to combat the small user who used to come back from Mexico with a couple kilos stashed in a spare tire. Marijuana prices have increased by more than 4000% and it has become too dangerous an activity for the recreational smuggler. During the same period of time, however, cocaine prices have dropped to something like 40% of their previous value. Organised crime is clearly not being inconvenienced by the war on drugs. In fact, they appear to be moving more material more easily than ever.
It is my contention that the government's efforts have served to "weed out" the competition reducing the Mafia's cost of maintaining its monopoly. Organised crime is left free to concentrate on the real business of importing and distributing drugs.
I don't know how they get the stuff across the border so easily but I feel compelled to observe that cocaine is a retail commodity. Like all retail commodities it increases in value at each level of distribution and like all illegal commodities that increase tends to be something significant...on the order of 100%. Those junkies on the street are not buying directly from the importer. In fact, I'm guessing that most of them are at least two levels of distribution away from the importer. That means that MOST of the drug money is staying in the country. Those staggering quantities of money that have bought Colombian drug lords an army that rivals that of their legitimate government come out of a tiny fraction of the total profits. With that much money to work with I'm sure they have found broad avenues of entry into the country.
There was once a big difference in the marketing of marijuana and cocaine. Before the war on drugs cocaine was available only through organised crime connections and sold for prices on the order of $2000/ounce. Marijuana at that time was being imported rather casually by a wide variety of small users and sold for approximately $20/ounce.
After all this time the war on drugs has become more of an institution than an experiment. It has proven to be an effective way to combat the small user who used to come back from Mexico with a couple kilos stashed in a spare tire. Marijuana prices have increased by more than 4000% and it has become too dangerous an activity for the recreational smuggler. During the same period of time, however, cocaine prices have dropped to something like 40% of their previous value. Organised crime is clearly not being inconvenienced by the war on drugs. In fact, they appear to be moving more material more easily than ever.
It is my contention that the government's efforts have served to "weed out" the competition reducing the Mafia's cost of maintaining its monopoly. Organised crime is left free to concentrate on the real business of importing and distributing drugs.
I don't know how they get the stuff across the border so easily but I feel compelled to observe that cocaine is a retail commodity. Like all retail commodities it increases in value at each level of distribution and like all illegal commodities that increase tends to be something significant...on the order of 100%. Those junkies on the street are not buying directly from the importer. In fact, I'm guessing that most of them are at least two levels of distribution away from the importer. That means that MOST of the drug money is staying in the country. Those staggering quantities of money that have bought Colombian drug lords an army that rivals that of their legitimate government come out of a tiny fraction of the total profits. With that much money to work with I'm sure they have found broad avenues of entry into the country.
posted by androgenoide at 6:38 PM
0 comments
