Pubdate: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 Source: Hendersonville Times-News (NC) Column: Life in the Middle Copyright: 2009 Hendersonville Newspaper Corporation Contact: http://www.blueridgenow.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/793 Author: Susan Hanley Lane ADDICTS NOT THE ONLY ONES CORRUPTED In recent months, the border cities of Juarez and Tijuana, Mexico, have been under siege by the blatant violence of drug cartels fighting to control what may be the most lucrative business in the entire world. In a press conference in March, President Obama acknowledged that the vicious cycle of dealing and smuggling drugs in virtually every city in America has been fueled by cash and guns flowing back across the Mexican border. So far, our solution to this problem has focused on tougher law enforcement, more and better fencing along the Mexican-American border, more prisons and harsher sentences for drug addicts. Unfortunately, this approach, which we've been hawking for more than thirty years, hasn't worked. There are reasons for that which lawmakers, who have the power to come up with a more effective approach, have steadfastly refused to acknowledge, let alone work toward a solution. The biggest reason is money. In this case, the old saying is poignantly true: If you want to find the root of the problem, follow the money. About a decade ago, Lowell Bergman, the man who helped Jeffrey Wigand tear the mask off tobacco companies who had deliberately hired chemists to find ways to make tobacco more addictive, produced a documentary about the history of the drug wars in America. One of the drug runners featured in this documentary explained that in '70s and '80s, when the mightiest drug cartels were located in Cali and Medellin, Columbia, drugs were smuggled into the U.S. through cays, small islands that lie off the coast of Florida. He also said that even if 90% of the drugs then being smuggled in to the U.S. were seized, the kind of money involved would still make the risks more than worth it. Stop for a moment and think about that. What kind of business anywhere in the world has profits so enormous that even if 90% of the business was hijacked, the remaining 10% of the profits would make taking a 90% loss more than worth it? This man went on to say that nowhere near 90% of the drugs smuggled into the United States were intercepted. It was more, in fact, like the other way around, 90% made it to the street. The National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that drug cartels launder between 18 to 39 billion dollars annually. This is "after the fact" profits that must be hidden in a safe place. That doesn't account for the cost of getting drugs from the growers in South America and elsewhere, the trafficking through Central America, the slice that goes to the drug runners and distributors all along the way, and bribes paid to officials from one end of the world to the other. These many billions are profits after expenses that rival the entire operating cost of many major nations in the world. This staggering amount of money leads to the core of the problem behind the drug wars: Corruption. In virtually every story reported about the growing violence of the Mexican cartels, the word corruption is a prominent part of the discussion. But the only corruption under discussion is what happens in Mexico. What about us? Or should that question be: What about U.S.? Surely none of us are so naive that we have never considered who is in on the take from this almost limitless flow of cash across our borders. Just as Hitler couldn't murder six million Jews all by himself, drugs from Mexico don't make it across the border and all throughout the United States without a systematic chain of cooperation from many, many people in our own country. And no, not all of them are Mexican. Not by a long shot. This is one of the strongest reasons in favor of campaign finance reform. When politicians need literally millions and millions of dollars to run a campaign, who can come up with that kind of money? In recent months, we've seen more than a few examples of the rampant corruption that has led to our current economic meltdown. Follow the money. Then ask yourself, what corporation in the world has more money than the drug cartels? If lobbyists from special interest groups throw money into the campaign, why wouldn't drug czars contribute "clean" (laundered) drug money in exchange for legislation that makes interstate commerce less restrictive, facilitates the flow of goods across the border, relaxes illegal immigrant laws (to name just a few possibilities)? There are many reasons to reconsider the decriminalization of illegal drugs. Not only would such legislation give addicts a chance to confront their addictions legally, under the supervision of medical personnel who can offer treatment along with legally prescribed drugs, but the huge sums of illegal cash that now fund the drug trade will stop flowing. When Prohibition was repealed, the overwhelming majority of rum runners and bootleggers went out of business. Why buy something illegally when you can get a purer product at a fraction of the cost, legally? The same holds true for illicit street drugs. It is difficult to wrap the mind around this kind of drug policy. The only nightmare that is worse is the one we are stuck with right now: Millions of addicts selling their bodies and souls for drugs that eventually kill them, while thousands all along the way, from corporations run on laundered drug money, to politicians who don't really know where "that big donation" came from, cash in on their limitless fund of suffering. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake