Friday, February 25, 2005
Politics: Insanely-huge profits in the black market of illegal drugs
I recently made a friend. He's a young man (23, I think) who lives in my area and was recently released from prison on a drug-trafficking charge. "Drug-trafficking" is a pretty meaningless crime, since, in my state, it can be applied to possessing an ounce of marijuana (even if it's intended for personal use), or what this young man did.
This young man is a child of privelege in a small town. His grandfather is a prominent small-town public figure. He became involved in selling drugs in a small role which quickly ballooned into a large role. On one occasion he was pistol-whipped and dumped bleeding in a parking lot by drug-selling rivals. He always carried a loaded handgun for fear of being attacked or killed. It was a terrifying lifestyle. Why would someone do something like that?
Easy. His drug-selling black-market job netted him $30,000 per month. Read it again: $30,000 per month! With this kind of income he would go buy five pairs of shoes and if any one of them received a smudge or a scratch, then he would just throw the shoes away. He admitted to never having done his laundry ever -- he just threw away dirty clothes and replaced them with new ones. He lived in an apartment which rented for several thousand dollars per month. He was also a heavy user of the expensive and high-quality drugs that he had access to on a daily basis.
Consider this: if he was willing to risk being pistol-whipped and killed for the insanely-huge profits that selling drugs offered (and still offeres to anyone who wants to get involved), then what can the government possibly do to deter people from choosing that lifestyle?
If you support the War on Drugs, then you also necessarily support insanely-huge profits for selling drugs.
This young man is a child of privelege in a small town. His grandfather is a prominent small-town public figure. He became involved in selling drugs in a small role which quickly ballooned into a large role. On one occasion he was pistol-whipped and dumped bleeding in a parking lot by drug-selling rivals. He always carried a loaded handgun for fear of being attacked or killed. It was a terrifying lifestyle. Why would someone do something like that?
Easy. His drug-selling black-market job netted him $30,000 per month. Read it again: $30,000 per month! With this kind of income he would go buy five pairs of shoes and if any one of them received a smudge or a scratch, then he would just throw the shoes away. He admitted to never having done his laundry ever -- he just threw away dirty clothes and replaced them with new ones. He lived in an apartment which rented for several thousand dollars per month. He was also a heavy user of the expensive and high-quality drugs that he had access to on a daily basis.
Consider this: if he was willing to risk being pistol-whipped and killed for the insanely-huge profits that selling drugs offered (and still offeres to anyone who wants to get involved), then what can the government possibly do to deter people from choosing that lifestyle?
If you support the War on Drugs, then you also necessarily support insanely-huge profits for selling drugs.
