Can We End The War On Drugs Now?

What if one war is making another of the wars more necessary? By all accounts, at least some terrorism is being financed by drug money. We can't make drugs legal worldwide--so drugs will always have some value--but if we make them legal in just the U.S., those poppy fields all over Southeast Asia and those coca plants in South America are instantly less valuable and not as good a source of $$ for financing other things we don't like.

Just a thought.

 

Hardly. The illegality of heroin is what creates its scarcity and drives up the price. Make it legal and poppy is a ubiqitous, easy-to-grow crop, which could be cultivated out in the open as easily as rice is grown in many places. That alone would make it less expensive.

Then, take away the added cost of illicitly sneaking it across the world. Add in increased competition. Production and selling of the processed drugs would no longer be limited to a handful of enterprising thugs willing to take the risk of getting caught. Instead, as a crop, poppy could grow as plentifully as rice does and it could be imported into the U.S. legally and in the open. It would bring the price way down, because the price right now is as high as it is because it is illicit.