***Warning: The sales figure given at 50 billion is actually 50 million. The mistake was printed, so it appears below as it was printed.***
What industry does four hundred billion dollars worth of business each year? Which industry could lose seventy-five percent of it�s products and still make a profit? What product is worth $2,720 for two point two pounds of it in one country and $129,380 in another? If you guessed illegal drugs and their corresponding industries then you would be right. What�s even scarier is where this huge profit margin is going. One country is Afghanistan. U.S. News reports that starting in the 1990s Afghanistan produced most of the world�s opium. CBS news reported in December of 2000 that 72% of the world�s illegal opium came from Afghanistan. Opium can be used as a drug by itself or could be manufactured into morphine or heroin.
The Taliban and Osama Bin Ladan have been profiting from the enormous income that can be made, because drugs are illegal. U.S. News reported that the Taliban made around $50 billion dollars a year from the drug industry in Afghanistan. The United Nations reports that at least some of that money goes to training terrorists and buying weapons. CBS news reported in November of 2000 that there is evidence that the growth of opium for heroin was funding Bin Ladan�s Al-Qaeda. U.S. News reported on October 23 that United States officials believe that Bin Ladan participates in the drug trade to stay on the good side of the Taliban, thus having a safe haven. What all of this boils down to is that the illegal drug industry is, what props up the Taliban. Some of the money goes to terrorist training. Bin Ladan may also be getting money for terrorism but at the very least he has had a safe place to carry orchestrate terrorism due to the drug trade.
The United States government in turn says we need to crack down on the illegal drug industry. I question how much more can we pour into fighting the war on drugs? The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that the criminal and medical costs, 70% going to criminal costs, of illegal drugs is $67 billion dollars a year. Instead of spending more, I have a better idea. If we made illegal drugs legal we would ruin the financial aspect of selling drugs. We wouldn�t have to worry about any more American money being funneled into terrorist organizations or countries through drugs. We could be a model for other countries to follow suit. Let American farmers or friendly countries profit. Then take all the additional money that would have been spent to fight drugs and use it to fight terrorists. Plus you could start dividing up all the money from housing non-violent drug criminals, drug law enforcement and what not and spend it on helping people recover from drugs or the war on terrorism.
There are many reasons to end the war on drugs. Many, you probably have never even heard of. Some examples are the destruction of the Columbian rainforest, to possible US military involvement in Columbia and even the release of dangerous criminals from prison. Terrorists profiting from the illegal drug industry may not be the most compelling reason to end the war; yet it shows on a different level how the Drug War is hurting America. We often don�t look at where the money goes from the drug trade. Perhaps its time to start looking and end the flow of cash the only way possible. It�s impossible to end the trafficking of drugs and drug rings. They only have to sell 25% of their product to make a profit. If we end the war on drugs we can stop them from getting100% of our money.
Andrew Harris President of College Libertarians of Albright