My war on drugs

While most of us were celebrating the beginning of the world’s greatest college week, our president was in Cartagena, Colombia.

At the Sixth Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama fended off claims that the United States has failed in its war on drugs.

When pressed by President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, Obama replied that legalization was not a solution his administration was willing to consider.

There are few things on which I disagree with Barack Obama, but this might just be one of them.

Economic activity, like water, follows the path of least resistance. If there is a market for drugs in this country, drugs will find a way in.

Heroine addicts do not kick the habit just because prices go sky-high. Drugs are here to stay; the sooner we accept that, the sooner we can start solving the actual issue.

Drugs present what we in economics call an externality problem. They have costs to society that are not fully represented in their market price. For drugs, these costs include things such as health care provided to a cocaine addict, AIDS epidemics caused by hypodermic needles or theft done to pay for meth.

Notice, none of these costs goes away just because drugs are made illegal.

In economics we try to solve this problem by first applying a tax to reduce consumption, and then using that taxation income to pay for things such as health care for that cocaine addict. And in a perfect world, society essentially breaks even.

But when the only politically feasible solution to a drug problem is prohibition, society becomes deep in the red.

Difficulty in smuggling drugs illegally might result in prices high enough to still curb some consumption, but the end result is the same.

Drugs still get used and society is stuck with the bill for their costs without a way to pay for it.
Forcing the drug trade underground by making them illegal accomplishes one thing and one thing only: It makes a select handful of criminals extremely rich.

These represent some of the most dangerous people in the country. And ever since drug prohibition policies first hit the books in 1914, it has been the policy of the U.S. government to guarantee these junkies a steady and massive stream of income.

Makes sense, right?

Tripped out wackos + nearly unlimited resources = public safety. And the American public has swallowed this story gladly for almost a century.

Bringing the drug trade back into the realm of legitimate activity allows the communities in which it takes place to regulate and control it. The current policy of stamping it out wherever it goes only looks like control. In truth, it just forces the uncontrolled out of sight, like sweeping dirt under the rug.

The harder and harder this nation’s government grinds the drug trade into the ground, the more dangerous and rich the people involved with it are going to grow.

This is not a solution, just a giant downward spiral.

Listen to your South American counterparts, President Obama, and have the courage to approach this problem with a fresh and open mind.

No longer should this country continue failed policies out of a sense of morality. Legalizing and regulating drugs will do much more good for the economy and the people of the American continents than this misguided “war” ever has.

After all, economic activity, like water, follows the path of least resistance.

And it is much easier to get water to go where you want it than to seal it out altogether.

­— drlreed@indiana.edu