Pubdate: Thu, 12 Apr 2012
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2012 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact: http://www.newsok.com/voices/guidelines
Website: http://newsok.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: George F. Will

WEIGHING UPS AND DOWNS OF DRUG LEGALIZATION

WASHINGTON - Amelioration of today's drug problem requires Americans to
understand the significance of the 80/20 ratio. Twenty percent of
American drinkers consume 80 percent of the alcohol sold here. The same
80-20 split obtains among users of illicit drugs.

About 3 million people - less than 1 percent of America's population -
consume 80 percent of illegal hard drugs. Drug trafficking
organizations can be most efficiently injured by changing the behavior
of the 20 percent of heavy users, and we are learning how to do so.
Reducing consumption by the 80 percent of casual users will not
substantially reduce the northward flow of drugs or the southward flow
of money.

Consider current policy concerning the only addictive intoxicant
currently available as a consumer good - alcohol. America's alcohol
industry, which is as dependent on the 20 percent of heavy drinkers as
they are on alcohol, markets its products aggressively, and
effectively. Americans' experience with marketing's power inclines
them to favor prohibition and enforcement over legalization and
marketing of drugs.

But this choice has consequences: More Americans are imprisoned for drug
offenses or drug-related probation and parole violations than for
property crimes. And although America spends five times more jailing
drug dealers than it did 30 years ago, the prices of cocaine and heroin
are 80 percent to 90 percent lower than 30 years ago.
In "Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know," policy analysts
Mark Kleiman, Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken argue that imprisoning
low-ranking, street-corner dealers is pointless: A $200 transaction can
cost society $100,000 for a three-year sentence. And imprisoning large
numbers of dealers produces an army of people who, emerging from prison
with blighted employment prospects, can only deal drugs.

There is a staggering disparity between the trivial sums earned by
dealers who connect the cartels to the cartels' customers, and the
huge sums trying to slow the flow of drugs to those street-level
dealers. Kleiman, Caulkins and Hawken say that in developed nations,
cocaine sells for about $3,000 per ounce. And the supply of cocaine
can be cheaply and quickly expanded. But in the countries where
cocaine and heroin are produced, they sell for about 1 percent of
their retail price in America. If cocaine were legalized, a $2,000
kilogram could be FedExed from Colombia for less than $50 and sold
profitably in America for a small markup from its price in Colombia,
and a $5 rock of crack might cost 25 cents. Criminalization drives the
cost of the smuggled kilogram in America up to $20,000. But then it
retails for more than $100,000.

People used to believe enforcement could raise prices but doubted that
higher prices would decrease consumption. Now they know consumption
declines as prices rise but wonder whether enforcement can
substantially affect prices. They urge rethinking the drug-control
triad of enforcement, prevention and treatment because we have been
much too optimistic about all three. Oceans of money And cartels have
oceans of money for corrupting enforcement because drugs are so cheap
to produce and easy to renew. So it is not unreasonable to consider
modifying a policy that gives hundreds of billions of dollars a year
to violent organized crime.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized "medical
marijuana," a messy, mendacious semi-legalization that breeds cynicism
regarding law. In 1990, 24 percent of Americans supported full
legalization. Today, 50 percent do. In 2010, in California, where
one-eighth of Americans live, 46 percent of voters supported
legalization, and some opponents were marijuana growers who like the
profits they make from prohibition of their product.

Would the public health problems resulting from legalization be a
price worth paying for injuring the cartels and reducing the costs of
enforcement? We probably are going to find out.
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