Drugs

I was just rereading, for the fourth hundred thirty eighth time, parts of Clancy's Executive Decisions -- this time, the first meeting between the new president and the ambassador from Colombia. To most citizens of the US (I wonder -- should we be called You Essians? I'd agree to that if the Canadians would agree to change the name of their country to Canadia), that country means predominantly two things: drugs and coffee. In this meeting, the president says that he believes that this country has harmed Colombia more than the reverse, and that the source of that harm is the use by Americans of drugs produced in Colombia. He says that at least half of the use is for recreational purposes. In order to reduce the use, he plans to propose legislation to make it 'un-fun' to use drugs. Violation would lead not to jail terms but to enforced community service.

I have to admit, the first couple of times I read that, it sounded good to me. But then I started to mull it over a little bit. If what you're trying to do is reduce the power of criminal gangs in Colombia, which they get from the money they earn by selling their drugs here, that that would probably do it. If instead of a fine, or jail time, you found yourself painting underpasses and picking up garbage, you might think twice about whether the use of marijuana and cocaine was all that great an idea. I don't think it would stop people who had to have it, but it'd probably stop the people who were just on the edge.

But if you wanted to just reduce the money flow, and hence the gang's influence, why not just force the price down? I have no idea what drugs go for, but say that an ounce of cocaine costs ten dollars on the street. From what little I've read, I gather that the actual production cost is about a dollar. So what if you forced the street price down to a dollar? Or two dollars? Wouldn't that have the same effect?

I guess that when you're trying to meet multiple goals -- reducing drug use because its unhealthy to the person as well as to the state -- simple solutions are not available. Too bad.