Pubdate: Wed, 25 May 2016
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/213
Author: David McWilliams

THERE'S A VERY EASY WAY TO DESTROY MURDEROUS DRUGS GANGS FOR GOOD

Most Drug Dealers Don't Live in Some Fine Pad on the Costa Del Sol, 
They Actually Live With Their Mammies.

THE news that another man has been killed in a war fuelled by money 
made from drug dealing, begs the question how long are we going to 
tolerate the illegality of drugs. Yes, the word used is tolerate!

How long are we going to tolerate a situation where drug money is 
fuelling the murderous activity of drug gangs, while the use of drugs 
is not decreasing, but increasing.

Prohibition is failing us. The drug bosses are getting richer and the 
prisons and courts are full to the brim with petty criminals who are 
nothing but cogs in a vast criminal enterprise.

The definition of insanity according to Einstein is doing the same 
thing over and over again and expecting different results. We've been 
doing the same thing since I was a kid and drugs are not less 
conspicuous in our society but more available.

Is it time to change our drugs policy and begin moves to undermine 
these gangs by decriminalising certain drugs?

Here's the reality. The war on drugs has failed. What we have now is 
not the "war on drugs", but the "war of drugs", where the profits 
central to the drug trade are controlled by a small but violent knot 
of mafiosi whose illicit cash gives them their power. Take the cash 
away and they'll have no power.

The war on drugs has failed by any logical economic metric. There are 
more drugs now available than at any time in human history. 
Prohibition doesn't appear to have had any material impact on drug 
use. The "war on drugs" has driven the price of the drugs upwards, 
making it a very profitable business. When the business is illegal, 
contracts are not enforced by law but by brute force and murder.

Prohibition always attracts criminals because the prohibition itself 
creates the business opportunity. Prohibition drives up profits by 
driving up the price. This is exactly what we saw in the USA during 
booze prohibition. Prohibition was a godsend for the mafia.

Similarly today, as the profits rise, more and more people are 
enticed into the business and deeper and deeper drug networks are 
forged, starting with the small-time dealer selling locally, right up 
to the big guy trading internationally.

Interestingly, at the bottom the profits are meagre, but the prize 
for the young guys getting involved in the drugs business is that one 
day, if they are violent enough, crafty enough and lucky enough not 
to be killed, they too can become the drugs baron.

But the truly interesting fact is that most drug dealers don't live 
in some fine pad on the Costa del Sol, they actually live with their mammy.

In the book 'Freakonomics', which applies economic theory to diverse 
subjects, the authors proved that the vast majority of drug dealers 
in the US are smalltime operators who live with their mammies, who 
probably make not much more than the minimum wage, yet take huge 
personal risks.

When the economists studied a notorious crack gang in Chicago, it 
turned out the gang worked a lot like most normal franchise 
businesses, such as McDonald's. If you were to hold a McDonald's 
organisational chart and the crack gang's organisational chart side 
by side, you could barely tell the difference.

The crack gang was one of about 100 branches - franchises, really - 
of a bigger organisation. The franchise leader reported to a board of 
directors, employed three senior officers and, depending on the 
season, from 25 to 75 "foot soldiers" or street corner salesmen.

These foot soldiers lived with their mammies, making small money but 
all hoping to make it big one day.

If that's the way American drug operations are set up, it seems fair 
to say that Irish ones are the same or broadly similar.

Therefore, the notion of the rich, off-shore, Ferrari-driving dealer 
is entirely false. The majority of people involved are at the bottom, 
like an economic franchise.

Except this business is illegal and therefore dangerous and the price 
of the drugs are much higher than they would be if the drugs were 
legal, like alcohol.

Four other specific implications flow from the high price of drugs. 
Addicts must shell out hundreds of times the real cost of drugs, so 
they have to rob to feed their habit. Petty crime goes through the 
roof. The higher the price, the more crime occurs just to buy the 
same amount of gear.

At the same time, those who deal find themselves carrying extremely 
valuable goods. Therefore, among the low-level dealers, crime, 
assault and murder increase because they are carrying extremely 
valuable cargo, despite not making much money personally.

The streets of the city become a battleground for turf among competing dealers.

THIS week, we saw what happens when these battles get out of control. 
When the returns are so substantial, criminals will do anything to 
dominate the business.

When drugs are legalised (and yes, I believe it is a matter of when, 
not if), the price will collapse, and so will drug-related crime.

Users will no longer need to steal to support their habit. 
Drug-related crime will fall to the same level as off-licence-related 
crime. When was the last time you heard about a person being killed 
at an off-licence for a bottle of vodka or being stabbed for a packet 
of 20 Marlboro Red?

Legalising drugs would also lead to a dramatic and permanent fall in 
our prison population. The majority of prisoners in Ireland are there 
because of drug-related crimes.

A few years ago, I went to Mountjoy Prison to talk economics to 
prisoners who were doing the subject in the Leaving Cert. These men 
were trying to get their act together, which must be almost 
impossible when you are inside. The vast majority of them were doing 
time for drug-related offences. These are only offences because, 
unlike fags and booze, drugs are illegal.

If the prisons are clogged up with drug-related offenders, so too are 
the courts. Legalising drugs would free up huge resources wasted in 
the legal system to enforce the war on drugs, which isn't working at 
all. And think about the amount of Garda resources that would also be freed up.

Maybe the most obvious prize would be that legalising drugs would 
destroy the drug gangs. There would be no reason for them to be in 
business. This result alone has to be worth considering.

The only reason why these guys kill is because they are making a fortune.

There is no logical economic rationale for the present drugs policy. 
The war on drugs has failed, why not admit it and start rethinking 
this societal dilemma?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom