Colombia Pressures Obama To Legalize Drugs

President Obama arrived in Cartagena, Colombia at the Summit of the Americas to several surprises, not the least of which was the philandering ways of a few of the members of the Assault Unit of the Secret Service that preceded him there. Who would have thought that members of the Secret Service advance unit would let an argument over a payment to a business woman of less than $60 tarnish the reputation of the illustrious Secret Service.

Hang them from a Mast Sail (what ever that is) for stupidity is my take on the whole thing, but, then again, I wasn’t there, I didn’t see the lady the two were sharing, so I guess I shouldn’t opine about that. But there was another surprise that wasn’t a really big surprise to the President. I mean, it is not like he hasn’t heard this before.

According to Phillip Smith of STOP THE WAR ON DRUGS.org ” Pressures that have been building for a decade or more have only intensified in recent months, with Latin American leaders including Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, and even Mexican President Felipe Calderon calling for a frank and open discussion of alternatives to US-style war on drugs.

In this case the Colombia President pointedly asked the President about consideration for legalization or decriminalization of marijuana and cocaine to reduce to the violence associated with the drugs. Indications are that there are tens of thousands of Colombians killed annually because of the NARCO wars in Colombia alone. If you add to that the 50,000 deaths in Mexico alone that are directly attributed to the war on drugs it has become a war in Latin America far more costly than either the Iraq and Afghanistan war combined for the United States. The point made so distinctly by Colombia’s President is that it is primarily the market in the United States that is driving the drug market which in turn is driving the violence. On this point the Colombian President is exactly right and it is something that has been known in this country for almost a half century.

One of my all time favorite readings as an undergraduate was a book written by Stanford Law Professor Herbert Packer entitled “Limits of The Criminal Sanction” in 1968. Professor Packer, who many say was wise before his time, was actually there at exactly the right time except no one would listen to him. In this work is a chapter titled “The Crime Tariff Theory” in which he explains, with the utmost clarity, exactly what has been happening since Nixon’s war on drugs. It is really a very simple calculation that any first year business student could figure out.

His theory revolves around viewing the actual cost of producing a product ready for market compounded by the scarcity (or demand) for the product compounded by the risks of getting that product to market (which includes any tariffs) determines the price and the profit of the product. If one is growing corn, for example, the price is dictated by the amount of corn grown by farmers, how much corn is wanted at the time, and how readily they can get that corn to market with the added taxes or tariffs. That makes for a very simple equation. It is also dependent upon the value of the corn that is effective by the weather, most of all which is predictable for the commodities markets. On the other hand, when dealing with Marijuana (we will leave cocaine out for the moment) the equation changes just a bit. There are the normal risks of growing and preparing the crop for market with the additional burden of government entities trying to locate and destroy your crops. (That is your first government tariff though it is hard to measure it is estimated at 10 – 15 %). Then, once your crop is ready to go to market the process of shipping it to market results in another government tariff of another 10 – 15%).

So, the simple farmer who has chosen to use marijuana as his crop has lost 20 – 30% just through production and shipping of his product. Once the product has cleared the first two hurdles it must then go the first distribution point, say New Orleans, LA. The distributor there absorbs a lessor loss there at perhaps 5 % as he doles it out to wholesalers who have some loses of 5 – 10 %, but they then hand it out to street dealers. By now we have taken a naturally growing plant cultivated and cared for, processed and turned in to marijuana for consumption that went from an initial production cost of .25 an once for prime product that has to be marked up to close $.90 per ounce before it gets to the street and that doesn’t calculated the tariff of risk of being caught with an illegal substance. Then there is the issue of supply and demand. When demand exceeds supply the cost goes up accordingly in terms of profits for the dealer who is taking the risk of getting caught by police, or getting killed by a rival dealer. All of this over a plant that grows naturally most anywhere you plant it and can produce a number of other items in addition to marijuana. It is past time for this country to take a reasonable view of a product which has more benefit and less danger than alcohol.

You see, if the guy selling corn gets caught its no big deal, but for the guy possessing marijuana, it is a trip to prison, so all along that trail that risk is the government tariff. And, because, the battle for righteous turf is so fierce, and ones life in or out of prison depends on it, people will kill for the right territory to sell their product. The biggest different between the marijuana farmer and any other farmer is that society has chosen to make marijuana illegal though there is no evidence that is is any more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol. Yet, by our own legal pressures on the legal sanctions on marijuana we, as a government and as a society, guaranteed ever larger profit to the upscale drug distributors which they are willing to protect with as much violence as necessary.

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