Pubdate: Tue, 07 May 2002
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: David R. Henderson
Note: David R. Henderson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism)

DRUG WAR SUPPORTS TERRORISTS

In recent months, the United States government spent $10 million of our tax 
dollars for its latest anti-drug campaign. Its new pitch: if you buy 
illegal drugs, you're supporting terrorists because terrorists are 
intimately involved in the production, sale, and distribution of drugs.

Guess what? I agree. People who buy illegal drugs do support terrorists. 
But here's what the government leaves out: By making drugs illegal, the 
government supports terrorists even more.

Have you ever wondered why terrorist groups get involved in the illegal 
drug market and not, for example, in the legal market for Coca-Cola, soap 
or envelopes? The inaccurate answer that many people give is that the 
profits in dealing drugs are incredibly high, which attracts criminals. But 
profits are not incredibly high, once you adjust for risk: People in that 
trade have a tendency to die or go to prison, and they insist on being 
compensated for that risk.

No. The reason terrorists get involved in illegal drugs is that they are 
criminals; once a market is made illegal, the high risk-adjusted prices of 
the illegal good reward those with "criminal skills." One such "skill" is 
the ability and willingness to murder people. That's why organized crime 
took over the liquor industry during Prohibition -- and quickly exited when 
Prohibition ended.

Moreover, the U.S. government is effectively supporting left-wing 
terrorists in Colombia. How so? Say you're a Colombian coca producer trying 
to make a peso. Working against you are Colombia's military and police, 
pressured by U.S. government subsidies and threats and aided by U.S. 
military personnel and equipment. The first thing you want is protection, 
and the place to go for protection is to anti-government people with guns 
who know how to fight, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 
(FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), both revolutionary leftists. 
You don't have to be a left-wing ideologue yourself to decide to pay them 
protection money, which is just what many coca farmers do.

By one estimate, the revenue to FARC from drug-related sources is more than 
$600 million a year, which would make it the best-funded terrorist group in 
the world. Between 1981 and 1986, drug traffickers murdered more than 50 
Colombian judges, including 12 supreme court justices.

A more informative ad line from the U.S. government would be: "When you 
support the drug war, you're supporting terrorists."
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