U.S. POLICIES CREATE LUCRATIVE BALACK MARKET

The State Journal-Register recently published two Chris Britt
cartoons" in the March 25 and 27 editions offering his perspective on
the relationship between illegal drug consumption and the social
problems associated with the illegal drug trade.

Britt's cartoons jokingly imply that the character smoking a joint in
his living room is responsible for guns and money flowing into
Mexico, in exchange for drugs coming back across the border. Britt's
cartoon ignores the fact that U.S. drug policies have created an
environment in which marijuana that costs about $10 per ounce to
produce, can sell for as much as $1,000 per ounce in America. These
policies have created the most lucrative black market the world has ever known.

For the past several decades, it has been the policy of the U.S.
government to institute laws to stop the supply and prevent the use
of particular drugs. The truth is that anybody in the U.S. who wants
drugs can get them and use them. In reality, drug prohibition does
not even exist.

Drug laws and drug policies exist, and so do their side effects,
which have proved (for over 30 years now) far worse than the effects
of the drugs that they were designed to interdict. The guns and
violence would not be possible without the extraordinary profits
derived by inflated drug prices, made possible by the illegal drug
trade. The U.S. government spends 50 cents of every law enforcement
dollar to enforce drug laws. What is the evidence? Half of all
investigations, prosecutions and incarcerations involve the
enforcement of drug laws.

It is a function of supply and demand that the greater the squeeze on
any product, the higher the price. As the price goes up so does the
incentive to produce, distribute and defend it.

Joseph A. Katalinich

Springfield