by Justin Page

Created on: May 25, 2008

The US should play a dominant role in reducing the production of drugs throughout the world. The fact is that drugs are a huge threat to the public welfare, and any good parent aspires to keep their children away from drugs. The debate ensues when one attempts to define just exactly how that is to be accomplished. The only logical way to reduce the production of drugs is to take away the incentives that propel a person to produce them, or to sell, or for that matter, to use them.

Let's start from the bottom of the totem pole. People use drugs because they are exposed to them and they are readily available. Drugs are readily available for purchase because there are huge profits in selling them because drugs are illegal. Drug dealers are able to get their hands on the product for the same reason that users are, it is available to them. It is available to them because it is being produced, whether locally or abroad is of no consequence. People are producing drugs because there are huge profits in the aspects of production. Again, this is because it is illegal.

The question is then posed: How does the fact that drugs are illegal make them worth more? Well, the explanation is simple. If something is illegal, then there are risks associated with trafficking the substance, it also makes the substance rarer. These two things in themselves raise the value of any given substance which is subjected to sanctions, or can be criminally prosecuted. The buyer has to pay for the supply and demand aspect of the product, as well as the potential risk to those who manufacture or sell the product.

In turn, high profit margins attract the criminal element. An element that is not subject to any sort of licensing procedures or profit documentations. This creates a no holds barred business structure which is ran by criminal enterprises. Such enterprises have no rules, and do not pay taxes on the profits they make. For these reasons drugs have come to be a plague to the civilized world, associated with other evils such as, prostitution, murder, money laundering, extortion, and corruption. Also the United States government looses out on billions of dollars in taxes in an undocumented, underground market that is ran by unscrupulous criminals.

In this light, the answer then is not criminalization, but regulation and education. By legalizing drugs you accomplish several objectives. You narrow the profit margin associated with the the production or sales of drugs. Suddenly the amount of

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