'WAR ON DRUGS IS NOW NECESSITATING THE WAR ON TERRORISM'

Readers would no doubt be distressed to learn that the U.S. government
helped finance the terrorist attacks that killed so many people in New York
and Washington.

It's not such a far-fetched thought. According to House Speaker Dennis
Hastert, terrorist organizations are financed in part by profits from
trading in drugs. "The illegal drug trade is the financial engine that
fuels many terrorist organizations around the world, including Osama Bin
Laden's," Hastert said.

But what makes the drug trade so profitable? Just one thing: The U.S. war
on drugs. How ironic! The war on drugs is now necessitating the war on
terrorism. War does indeed beget war.

This is a particularly sordid example of what the CIA calls "blowback," the
backfiring of an official operation.

Drugs in themselves are fairly cheap to produce. Growing marijuana, poppy
for opiates, and coca for cocaine is no big deal. Poor people do it all
over the world. The processing of those crops into usable drugs is also
relatively inexpensive.

What makes the drug industry so lucrative is the U.S.-led effort to stamp
it out. With prohibition comes high risks and thus elaborate efforts to
hide drug-related activity - the black market. Black markets always
produce high profits, because high profits are the premium needed to
compensate those who undertake great risk to produce the prohibited product
in defiance of the authorities.

This is nothing new. It is the well-grounded economics of black markets.
Opponents of prohibition have long held that the way to remove the
exorbitant profits from drug dealing is to end prohibition. Few in the
policymaking world would listen.

Now it is clear, if it wasn't already, that drug profits are used to
finance abominable operations, such as terrorist organizations that seek to
kill innocent people. This should surprise no one.

Black markets tend to be run by the most ruthless and despicable characters
around. Because black markets are outside the law, the standard forms
of resolving disputes are unavailable to their personnel. If
a multimillion-dollar drug deal goes awry, the wronged party can't sue the
offender. The courts are not open to him. So he's likely to take matters
into his own hands. That means violence.

For obvious reasons, then, the drug trade will attract those with the
fewest scruples about using violence. Indeed, it will reward those who are
best at it. Enter those who wish to engage in terrorism.

It has long been known that violent groups in Latin America have made money
by protecting coca farmers from government agents, both American and
indigenous. It should come as no surprise to learn that the same happens
in Asia and the Middle East.

Make no mistake about it: it is U.S. policy that creates a harmony of
interests between violent guerilla organizations and poor farmers trying to
make a living by growing crops needed for the production of drugs. The
U.S. government has foolishly hoped that those farmers could be encouraged
to grow legal crops. It has even tried to poison the illicit crops. But
those efforts are futile, because the financial reward for producing drugs
is so large.

In fact, the reward is so large that often the U.S. government's foreign
partners in the anti-drug effort are also involved in the black market.
Nothing is better at corrupting the law-enforcement establishment than
prohibition. Let's not forget history.

But the U.S. government persists in its worldwide war on drug producers and
traders despite countless failures and "blowbacks." Let's be blunt: every
U.S. drug czar has been an unwitting financier for terrorists.

No one is saying that drugs are the only source of money for terrorists.
But the multibillion-dollar industry is undoubtedly a major source. Denied
that money, the terrorists would have to operate at a far more modest
level. And the lives of many innocent people would be saved.

Here, then, is another good reason to end the absurd war on drug producers,
sellers, and users. There were plenty of good reasons already. But this
one might finally get people to reconsider this truly stupid policy.