Who profits from keeping marijuana, opium, and coca illegal?
In theory, society in general profits by not having to assume the spin-off health care costs that society would be forced to pay if use was widespread. For example, everybody in the US ends up paying for cancer caused by cigarettes. They pay through higher insurance premiums, higher health care costs, lost efficiency in the workplace, etc. In America, in theory, the same thing would happen to the economy if more drugs were leaglised.
Well, the alcohol companies avoid competition from other substances, and there’s a whole network of dealers and distributors for whom no profit could be made if these drugs were legal. But I don’t think money is the major causal condition for our problems with illegal drugs: making the drugs illegal was well-intentioned, I think… but it also seems you can make a case for that the cost of the “war on drugs” isn’t justified. The cost is terrible, not only in our own country but in countries which serve as the pipeline, e.g. South American nations and Mexico. Mexico in particular is paying a terrible price for our war on drugs, as the level of violence between the cartels and the government indicates. I would probably favor getting rid of this war: keep the drugs illegal, but switch to focusing on treatment and dispense with the overly harsh sentences for possession and the excessive investment in crushing the trade. I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of the conditions which cause people
