Drugs and the Law 

Page Content 

    Does Prohibition Work?

    Prohibition Produces Crime     This section is a duplicate if the list on the home page.

    The Price of Prohibition      This section is a duplicate of the list on the home page

 . . .

Does Prohibition Work?

Some people are still functioning under the illusion that drug use can be stopped by government violence and threat of violence.  Is prohibition a sensible, logical, or reasonable way to deal with drug misuse?   Before you answer that question, consider each of the factors below on this page:

Prohibition Produces Crime

Outlawing certain drugs  raises their price,   pushes the activity "underground,"   makes criminals wealthy,   finances terrorism,   corrupts government officials,   and  does absolutely nothing to stop drug use.   (Please see the complete list on our home page.)   Outlawing marijuana actually encourages more drug use because the only way many people can pay for their habit is to get their friends hooked on drugs.  

The huge profits encourage people to become criminals.    Seventy percent of all crime is drug related.   Keeping drugs illegal  also supports a huge, multi-billion-dollar,  police/prison industry.   Keeping drugs illegal creates morality-enforcers and pushes the country in the direction  of a police-state.   Illegal drugs are at the core of crime everywhere on the planet.   A  significant percent of the world's economy is based upon the sale of illegal substances.  

Overwhelming evidence shows that the prohibition of alcohol during the 1920's was  a complete failure and that it spawned the birth of what is now a global-level, semi-secret, organized-crime network.   

In the face of overwhelming evidence that the prohibition of alcohol was a social disaster and in the face of even more compelling evidence that the present prohibition of certain drugs is a disaster of far greater proportions, politicians are still waging war against the of use of certain declared-to be-illegal drugs. 

Before we answer the question, "WHY?" let's look at what drug prohibition is costing us:

The Price of Prohibition

The prohibition of certain (declared-to-be-illegal) substances:

.

    The price would drop dramatically

    Secret government agencies would be deprived of their major source of money.

Alcohol and Tobacco   

Even though nicotine is more addictive than heroin and even though selling alcohol, and nicotine result in over five-hundred- thousand deaths each year and cost billions of dollars in damages each year, it's perfectly legal to advertise, promote, sell, and openly use these two drugs.   Did you ever wonder why it's perfectly OK to sell alcohol and nicotine which kill over five-hundred-thousand people each and every  year, and at the same time, it's illegal to sell marijuana which has never, directly killed anyone in all the years of recorded medical history ?

Follow the Money Trail

In the United states alone, the illegal drug industry is a multi--billion-dollar-per-year business.   Estimate range for  $250 billion to $750 billion,  annually, and that doesn't even count the vast police, military, and prison industry that, for it's own survival, vitally needs to keep drugs illegal.   If you want to know why selling alcohol and nicotine are legal and marijuana is not, simply follow the money trail.   Ask yourself these questions:

              Who is rich because certain chemicals are illegal?   

              Who would lose money if they became legal?

              What would happen to the economy if drugs became legal?

One of the main reasons why certain drugs are illegal is because there is an incredible price markup between production cost and final sale price.   For example, cocaine sells to the consumer for about 170 times its production cost, and the buds and flowers from a plant that grows profusely on its own almost anywhere (marijuana  --  cannabis sativa) sells for more per ounce than gold.  

Political Power 

A  second major reason why certain drugs are illegal is that drug money buys political power.   As you must realize by now, political power is the only thing keeping drugs illegal.   Imagine that every year you had several billion dollars that you needed to launder, to whom would you turn?

The money launderers are taking their portion of this sixty-five-billion-dollar-per-year business.   Did you ever wonder who has the financial clout to launder $250 billion dollars every year and get away with it?

If you had millions of dollars at your disposal, and if you were also morally bankrupt, could you figure out ways to secretly financially support  or otherwise assist those politicians who vote to keep drugs illegal?   Of course you could!   And you could also do so without them even knowing that they had a secret benefactor.   

And the opposite is also true.   With equal secrecy, you could be a career destroyer of those who support the decriminalization of the now-illegal drugs.   

It's highly unlikely that anyone would actually give American politicians the "silver of lead" choice.   Why?   Because they don't need to.   It doesn't take a genius to figure out how the system works.   And besides, it's much safer,  far easier, and much more fun to manipulate their circumstance and simply get them out of political office.   Nobody goes to jail for killing another's career.   That's an all-too-common practice, but being linked to murder brings with it some  rather serious problems.

Silver or Lead 

The third major reason why drugs are still illegal is that, in many countries,  those responsible for drug peddling offer politicians and those who might oppose the drug cartels "an offer they can't refuse."    They say, "Do you want silver of lead?" (money or bullets) "Take this money and look the other way or we will kill you and your entire family."   If offered such a choice, how would you respond?    

Marijuana  -- What's a Reasonable Price?

At the time this thesis was originally written, (2002)  marijuana, which grows like a weed almost anywhere, was  more expensive per ounce than gold.   It cost about $400 per ounce only because it was illegal.   

Today, 2009, it costs legal growers roughly $10 to $15 per once to grow high-grade marijuana.  This would make a reasonable sale-to-the-consumer price of anywhere from $30 to $50 an ounce.   

If the criminal sanctions were removed, it could also be home grown completely free of any significant costs by almost anybody who has a flower pot, some seeds,  and a little water  

Eliminating the Middle Men:  

Another factor to consider is that the growing and selling of marijuana is a relatively simple process.   Expensive equipment or machinery are completely absent form the process.   It's so simple that almost anybody with a little common sense and the willingness to learn how, and a little bit of land can grow reasonably-high-grade marijuana.  

Major corporations that are required to commercially produce, distribute, and sell alcohol, tobacco and thousands of other products would be kept out of business by local, small growers.   Also the middle-men between growers and retail sellers would be almost completely eliminated, as would be the necessity of long-distance transportation.  

Also consider The Law of Supply and Demand.   That law, in essence, say that more produces would result in lower prices.   When marijuana is given it's freedom, the free market will set the price.   Regarding the sale of commercially-produced products, a free market is something that hasn't seen in the united states  for about one hundred years.  

Reference:   The Illusion of a Free Market   

Why this Is Important:  

Are you aware that the people between a product's producer and you the buyer raise a product price by, on average, ten times production cost.   In other words, you pay about $100 for products that are produced at a cost of $10.   Regarding production and sale of marijuana, having a multitude of growers, eliminating most of the middle men, and drastically reducing shipping and transportation costs would result in a totally free market.   Thus the present price of about $400 per ounce would be dramatically reduced  

Notes and References

**tlc6t     **tlc6  ... 
We are well aware that using technically correct grammar would require is to write words such as "presently illegal" and "mutually supporting" without a hyphen.   We have chosen to ignore protocol in favor or ease of understanding on the part of the less sophisticated readers.