Stop the “war on drugs” please
Now here is a war that we need to stop. We have been fighting the “drug war” for 30 years and we will never stop drugs from entering this country. Hell, what are they going to do about prescription drug abuse? Have the military storm pharmacies and doctor offices?
Did you know that the Senate last week approved a $1.6 billion, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean? It includes $400 million for military equipment and technical assistance for Mexico’s anti-drug fight. The bill was passed earlier by the House, and President Bush is expected to sign it.
I’m a proponent of decriminalizing drugs and offering non-violent drug offenders rehabilitation. Hell, I’m all for legalizing and regulating drugs. The U.S. actually condones idiocy and I’m all for it. Go ahead and do your coke, heroin, meth and etc. Just don’t be bringing that shit out of your home or in front of kids. It’s just like don’t drink and drive. Kill yourself with it for all I care, we need population reduction anyways. Marijuana definitely needs to get legalized. More and more states are starting to decriminalize it. I feel that alcohol abuse is more devastating than being a pot smoker. I was never big on the old pot, but I drank, believe me I drank myself close to death.
They say that we could save over $46 billion a year if we rehabilitate non-violent drug offenders through drug courts. Housing an inmate in prison can cost up to $40,000 a year while drug court treatment costs up to $3,500 per offender a year.
The U.S. government’s total cost of controlling drugs in 2005 was almost $46 Billion in tax payer money. That includes law enforcement, incarceration, state and federal corrections and legal proceedings. The socioeconomic cost is not included in this total, but a study in 1998 said that the total cost of drug abuse was an estimated $143 Billion.
I have 3 reading assignments for you:
Read the story on the Mexico drug war. Story.
Read the story about drug courts and how it could save the taxpayers billions. Story.
For more information on how drug courts work. Link.
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Tags: columbia, decriminilization of drugs, drug courts, marijuana, mexico, peru, president bus, war on drugs
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June 29th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Well, since I am from Mexico, I would like to add my $0.02.
It turns out that Mexico’s economy is 1/13th of the US economy (or 1/12th, depending on who you ask). Anyway, Mexico also has 1/3 the amount of people, so GDP per capita in Mexico is 1/4 of what it is in the US. According to several economic think tanks, Mexico can considered itself a “developed country” when it doubles its GDP per capita (to 1/2 of the US), assuming that there is not too much inequality between the rich and the poor. (Needless to say, that is also a big problem in Mexico. Mexico has one of the world’s top richest men in the world, Mr. Carlos Slim, who’s worth is close to 60 billion USD, but Mexico also has about a third of its population, some 35 million people, surviving with less than $2 a day, for a pre-tax income of $730 dollars a year… compare that to the US minimum wage of $14,560 USD a year, or the claims that the poverty line in America is at $40,000 USD a year, and keep this in mind when reading my comment, so you can contextualize what the US is asking Mexico to do).
Anyway, the Mexican economy is small (1/13th of the US’s economy) and it is also very poorly distributed.
Now, consider Mexico’s official statements, that indicate that close to 30% of its own economy is “informal” (euphemism for “black market”). If we assume that most of this “informal” economy relates to drug trafficking, then we can assume that the drug revenues for Mexico are about 300 Billion. Ironically, due to the “informal” nature of the business, this 300 billion can actually fuel other sectors of the economy and reduce inequalities. Farmers plant drugs instead of poorly paid food, distributors are handsomely paid due to the risk in their trade, and militias are funded to fight the Mexican Army. In fact, in many cases, soldiers and officers from the Army actually chose to abandon their posts and join the drug militias because they can pay better. On top of it, this 300 billion need to be laundered. How? By investing in honest businesses that can return the investment formally. Drugs actually improve the economy of Mexico.
So, how can the US, who touts itself as a “friendly neighbor”, can ask Mexico to shoot itself in the foot by fighting against their largest industry?
Worse still! The Mexican Federal Budget is about $20 billion dollars. Yes, the second largest investor in Mexico is the Government. The main reason for this is that the government owns the oil monopoly, so, obviously, oil revenues “trickle down” to the economy through government investment (and political corruption that, also, has to be laundered).
Any way, consider this: the revenue for McDonald’s worldwide operations in 2007 was about 22 billion. This means that McDonald’s makes more selling hamburgers than Mexico’s government can spend on its people. Think about this.
Now, add this factor: 10% of Mexico’s Federal Budget goes directly to fighting the Drug War. Yes, that’s right. Mexico spend 2 billion dollars trying to stop their largest industry, worth 300 billion. Of course, Mexico’s politicians are soooo bright that they have NO plan to substitute the drug economy with anything else. Seized land from drug producing farmers is kept idle for decades. People become jobless, and the economy slows down, reducing income taxes and reducing the government’s power to invest in their people.
Also consider that Mexico NEEDS to grow. Mexico has 35 million people living with less than $2 a day. Mexico needs education, jobs, infrastructure, and a strong currency. If you hurt your largest export, you hurt your currency. Worse: you are choosing to NOT spend $2 billion in education, infrastructure, and business incentives that create jobs to use instead to fight your biggest industry. How dumb is that? What kind of a friend asks you to do that? The USA, of course! (Oh yes, and they ask Mexico to do this while complaining about all those illegal immigrants who go to the US looking for jobs because they can’t find any back home!)
So, what are the results? More than 2500 Mexicans killed this year SO FAR. Last year, it was 2000, and the year before was 1600. So, the rate is exponentially growing. Mexicans are dying and spending their future, shooting their country in the foot, fighting the US’s drug war.
So you think that $400 million in “military equipment and technical assistance” makes it all better? Yeah, so now we will not spend 2 billion, now we’ll only spend 1.6 billion of our own money, and .4 billion that the US has graciously given us, so that we can kill our 300 billion cash cow, and REDUCE our economy by 1/3.
My question is, does the US want more illegal immigrants, or why does it maintain this ridiculous policy and asks these outrageous favors from Mexico? Seriously, you can help Mexico become a developed country just by stopping the War on Drugs.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Oh, I wanted to add. I noticed from the very beginning that you (author of this post) are against the drug war as much as I am. The purpose of my previous post was to illustrate that stopping the drug war would help Mexico as much as it would help the USA, and adding that it is incredibly unfair for the US to ask Mexico to fight this war for them.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Great article, and great comment Hari. Extremely informative, and illustrates exactly what you’re point was perfectly.