Pubdate: Tue, 18 Apr 2000
Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 Canberra Times
Contact:  http://www.canberratimes.com.au/
Author: Peter Watney

PROHIBITION A SLIPPERY SLOPE

CIVILISED living depends on equitable and accessible law, order and justice.

The disputes that arise in legal commerce can be settled peacefully by our
justice system. Illicit-drug disputes cannot be taken to the civil court, so
the massive sums involved induce dispute resolution by violence.

At the same time, crimes against prohibitory laws and crimes induced by the
funding of drug purchases swamp the court and prison systems.

Prohibition contains mechanisms whereby: substances must be concentrated to
their most dangerous form, to ease transport and storage without detection;
prices rise until sales margins are higher than for any other substance on
Earth by a factor of many thousands; a pyramid sales system is the only
system that can survive.

That combination guarantees a steady increase in sales as a proportion of
total trade. There is a critical proportion of illicit trade to total trade
beyond which the justice system breaks down.

As an example, the justice systems of Colombia and Mexico have passed this
critical point.

Over the past 40 years, trade in illicit drugs has increased from perhaps 2
per cent of world trade to about 8 to 10 per cent of world trade, and is
rising.

What is the critical level beyond which the world justice system breaks
down? 10 per cent? 15? 17? 18?

Our present civilisation cannot survive if we remain on the slippery slope
that is prohibition.

PETER WATNEY
Holt
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