Drugs are a serious social problem, but as the Indochina war and the wars in Central America made clear, drug trafficking is so lucrative that it is virtually impossible to control, especially when the interests of the drug runners and covert government operators coincide. The upsurge in cocaine traffic in recent years has created an industry that generates an estimated $60 billion — $120 billion a year in the U.S. And it has led to more widespread corruption within the American criminal justice system than at any time since Prohibition. . . .
The tragedy of drug abuse, especially in the inner cities, is real. But it should be separated from the enormous criminal machine that has developed to supply illicit drugs. Telling a young person to “just say no” is pointless when he can make $5,000 a day as a pusher. If these same drugs were decriminalized and regulated by law in the same way alcohol and tobacco are, the motive for the drug trade would disappear and our efforts could be shifted to the real problems of addiction. If that had happened, the
