Pubdate: Tue, 07 May 2002
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (KS)
Website: http://www.ljworld.com/
Feedback: http://www.ljworld.com/site/submit_letter
Address: P.O Box 888, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
Copyright: 2002 The Lawrence Journal-World
Fax: (785) 843-4512
Author: David R. Henderson

DRUG WAR ALSO HELPS TERRORISTS

In recent months, the United States government spent $10 million of our tax 
dollars for its latest anti-drug campaign. Its new pitch: If you buy 
illegal drugs, you're supporting terrorists because terrorists are 
intimately involved in the production, sale and distribution of drugs.

Guess what? I agree. People who buy illegal drugs do support terrorists. 
But here's what the government leaves out: By making drugs illegal, the 
government is supporting terrorists even more.

Have you ever wondered why terrorist groups get involved in the illegal 
drug market and not, for example, in the legal market for Coca-Cola, soap 
or envelopes? The inaccurate answer that many people give is that the 
profits in dealing drugs are incredibly high, which attracts criminals. But 
profits are not incredibly high, once you adjust for risk: People in that 
trade have a nasty tendency to die or go to prison, and they insist on 
being compensated for that risk. Besides, if high profits were what 
attracted criminals, why don't those same high profits attract normal 
investors?

No. The reason terrorists get involved in illegal drugs is that they are 
criminals; once a market is made illegal, the high risk-adjusted prices of 
the illegal good reward those with "criminal skills." One such "skill" is 
the ability and willingness to murder people. That's why organized crime 
took over the liquor industry during Prohibition - and quickly exited when 
Prohibition ended.

Moreover, the United States government is effectively supporting left-wing 
terrorists in Colombia. How so? Say you're a Colombian coca producer trying 
to make a peso. Working against you are Colombia's military and police, 
pressured by U.S. government subsidies and threats and aided by U.S. 
military personnel and equipment. The first thing you want is protection, 
and the place to go for protection is to antigovernment people with guns 
who know how to fight. Two such groups are the Revolutionary Armed Forces 
of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), both 
revolutionary leftists. You don't have to be a left-wing ideologue yourself 
to decide to pay them protection money, which is just what many coca 
farmers and cocaine producers do.

By one estimate, the revenue to FARC from drug-related sources is more than 
$600 million a year, which would make it the best-funded terrorist group in 
the world. Thus, the war against drugs actually strengthens the position of 
the leftist insurgents.

These insurgents have terrorized Colombian society. Between 1981 and 1986, 
for example, drug traffickers murdered more than 50 Colombian judges, 
including 12 supreme court justices. Colombian citizens are also 
terrorized: more than 1 million of them emigrated in the past five years. 
If a similar percent of Americans did the same, we would lose 14 million 
citizens -almost half California's population.

A more informative ad line from the U.S. government would be: "When you 
support the drug war, you're supporting terrorists."
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