Most readers know that I strongly disagree with the war on drugs, while strongly applauding the war on terror. (While I don't like or defend drug dealers, I can't help noting ironically that more people defend terrorists than defend drug dealers.)
Moslems in the [South American] region, religiously and ideologically sympathetic to terror organizations like Hizballah and Hamas, if not actual members of the groups, have taken notice of the local rampant drug trafficking industry combined with the notoriously inefficient law enforcement as an ideal opportunity to raise funds for those groups.
The don't alway do so by avoiding the authorities - in some cases, they are cultivating their relationships with certain regimes. The rise of contrarian governments like Hugo Chávez's in Venezuela and Evo Morales' in Bolivia, and the growing rabid anti-Americanism they represent have shown potential for alliances.
There have reportedly been, in the past few years, many high level meetings between Hizbullah operatives and senior FARC leaders, both in Colombia and in Lebanon.
I agree that the arrest of a high level drug dealer like billionaire Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía is something to be applauded, because it will mean less money going to terrorists from that particular source.
But I see the fact that terrorists are turning to the highly profitable drug trade not as reason to applaud the war on drugs, but as a major indictment of it. Terrorists simply want money, and they'll go with whatever is the quickest and fastest way to get it. Where huge profits can be made simply by breaking laws that fuel anti-American sentiment (and cause people to elect scum like Morales), of course they're delighted to oblige.
Taking away the huge profit gleaned from the illegality of drugs won't stop terrorism, but it would dry up this source of revenue, and it would also free up countless busy law enforcement agents to devote more time to the war on terror. Right now, huge amounts of time are spent apprehending and imprisoning individual users and street level dealers, and law enforcement is being militarized in a strategy which makes growing citizens ever more distrustful of law enforcement generally. I don't think such ill will helps in fighting the war on terrorism. Added to this are instances of "Homeland Security" and Patriot Act provisions being invoked in the war on drugs despite the fact that these measures were intended to fight terrorism, and I worry that an important distinction is being blurred. Ordinary drug dealers and users may be many things, but they are not terrorists. Even if terrorists did profit from the production or distribution of the drugs ultimately sold here, that no more links street dealers and users to terrorism than filling my gas tank links me to Hugo Chavez.
Or the terrorist-financing Saudis.
As a pragmatist, I harbor no illusions that this country will ever have enough common sense to legalize re-legalize drugs, and thus deprive terrorists of this valuable revenue source. As I've said before, a more likely scenario would be for some patriotic American to use recombinant DNA technology to create a drug-producing form of yeast or bacteria which would allow users to regenerate their supply in sugar water:
I think the Drug War stinks, and I can't think of a better way to empower anti-American commies.
And now Evo Morales has risen to power from his base (pun unintended) as a leader in the opposition to the United States' coca eradication efforts.
What the hell are we trying to do, anyway? Transform a phony war into a real one? As I pointed out in a comment the other day, I don't think this nonsense will end until some libertarian idealist with nothing to gain resorts to a different sort of bioengineering.
With the cat was out of the bag and the drug making organism in circulation, there'd be no way for anyone to profit from its invention. Not Morales, nor Chavez, nor Hizbollah, nor Osama, and there'd be fewer temptations to corruption in banking and law enforcement.
I like the idea of putting bad people out of business.
posted by Eric on 08.09.07 at 08:16 PM
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So let's say you get your wish !POOF! all drugs (and you can't leave any out or the formula you prescribe won't work) are now legal.
What black market will the criminals and terrorists focus on to make money?
If you think they'll surrender their black market methods, you are mistaken. They won't become Amway salesmen (as annoying as that may be).
What will replace it? Then, when they are funding terrorism and organized crime with that illegal activity, will you suggest we legalize it, too?
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Mrs. du Toit · August 9, 2007 11:48 PM
'What will replace it?'
They'd probably go into selling blackmarket Edison lightbulbs due to the nutcases who advocated from their energy-consuming computers that the best way to fight the funding of terrorism while saving the earth is to require by law that all free people change to the new-fangled mercury bulbs.
That said, the only thing which can defeat Islamic Jihad is to have the Will. Thus far most in the West haven't any at all, they'd rather give into pop/rap/rock concerts while high on any number of X-tasy producing highs.
syn · August 10, 2007 08:20 AM
What irritates me is the idea that because terrorists are involved in the drug trade, that this is an argument for drug laws.
Terrorists are now making money smuggling ordinary cigarettes, because the taxes have gotten so high that there's an economic opportunity. To me, this is an argument that high taxes on cigarettes are having a more deleterious effect than the intent (which is to deter smoking), and it is an argument against high cigarette taxes. I am not saying that lowering the taxes will end terrorism or smoking, but it strikes me as crazy to pass laws which create and fuel worse problems than the ones they're intended to stop. I oppose drug laws because I think they're immoral and illogical and do not work. That terrorists are using them to their advantage is only one more reason I oppose them, albeit a secondary one.
No way am I arguing that drug laws (or cigarette laws) cause terrorism, or that terrorists wouldn't find new ways to make money. However, the fact that terrorists do this is certainly no justification for the laws, and far from inclining me to support drug laws, only heightens my opposition to them. One of the many downsides to drug laws is that they create opportunities which otherwise wouldn't be there. (If, say, you were opposed to the criminalization of music downloading and terrorists opened up huge pirate music sites, would that make you more inclined to support the laws? If terrorists bought guns in private sales, would that incline you to support "closing" the private sale "loophole"?)
In general, it strikes me that the fewer laws there are, the easier the task of law enforcement becomes, whether terrorists are involved or not.
Terrorists do, of course, already make money from violating laws I support, such as laws against counterfeiting. But that has nothing to do with why I support laws against counterfeiting. The difference between counterfeiting and drug dealing is that the former is theft, and malum in se (inherently wrong), while the latter is a consensual transaction no more harmful to anyone in itself than the sale of guns or cement, and is seen as wrong only because society passes laws against it. If terrorists "go legit" and started selling cement (they do run many legitimate businesses), that would not incline me to support tougher laws on cement sales.
Greetings distinguished members of The United States Senate, Congress and fellow Vanguards of our Constitution.
It's an honor and privilege to correspond with you on this day, despite the blatant deception and fraud perpetrated on the American People each year by the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the wake of the 911 Travesty and current global events, dedicated Public Health Servants had a unique opportunity to ensure the trust and confidence of all tax paying citizens during this time of uncertainty.
Like many Americans today, the reality of the current condition of our Public Health System would be horrifying at best.
The preference between life and death by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while protecting their institutionalized fabrications that are predicated by practices and patterns detrimental to the unknowing and unsuspecting in both affluent and resource poor communities remain unchallenged.
Unfortunately more will perish before true reform occurs. Time is running out. Take into account the "Chatter" heard months before the attacks on our country that brisk September morning.
This is not a warning, rather a somber veracity of the discreditable strategies and approaches taken to quell the spread of fatal communicable diseases that plague our nation.
What has been absent is the forum in which truth and justice can be achieved for those whose lives have been unceremoniously discarded.
These failed policies are poised to have a catastrophic affect on our National Security. My sole purpose for contacting you is to appeal to the very essence of your moral fortitude.
Therefore I'm respectfully requesting you exercise the full and lawful authority attainable to address this urgent situation.
The documents that accompany this letter (http://www.myspace.com/cdc_chatter_box) will detail the qualitative assertions made by myself and many others while stationed at the Philadelphia’s Federally Managed Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Program.
Among other things, they will illustrate conditions of “Selective Enforcement of Disease Control” resulting in the “ Intentional Abandonment of Care”.
I strongly believe this problem is endemic throughout the Country. Your leadership is necessary and engagement is warranted!
I thank you in advance for your service to our Nation and Dedication to the notion of "Justice" for all!
Gods Speed,
Brian C. Robinson Public Health Consultant
P.O. Box 162 Abingdon, Maryland 21019
443-504-5522
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
So let's say you get your wish !POOF! all drugs (and you can't leave any out or the formula you prescribe won't work) are now legal.
What black market will the criminals and terrorists focus on to make money?
If you think they'll surrender their black market methods, you are mistaken. They won't become Amway salesmen (as annoying as that may be).
What will replace it? Then, when they are funding terrorism and organized crime with that illegal activity, will you suggest we legalize it, too?
Give a mouse a cookie...