The market will defeat the war on drugs

When you get a chance, watch the documentary “Cocaine Cowboys“. It gives a great overview of the rise of the cocaine industry in Florida in the 1970s and 80s. It features news clips of the time and lengthy interviews with some of the pioneers of the industry. It shows how the US consumer was supplied with cocaine from Latin America, despite the US government’s war on drugs. Not that you’re a junkie or anything, but it does give a great example of how the market functions despite impediments. It shows that the market works, whether socialist dictators like it or not.

In 2010 it is illegal to use or deal in drugs in South Africa, although the government conveniently decided to include the contribution of illegal trade, drugs, and prostitution in their GDP calculations as of late 2009. Maybe Jackie Selebi could give them some kind of idea of the size of the industry. How else does one estimate the size of an invisible industry? 

People are quick to support the anti-drugs position, a view which I understand and have sympathy with to an extent. It just misses the point. If the state came out tomorrow and brought in prohibition on alcohol, I doubt it would have the same kind of support as prohibition on drugs. But there can be no doubt that alcohol rips many familes apart, leads to many deaths on the road, and sends many adults to a downward spiral. Is the case for alcohol not merely premised on it being less-bad than drugs? But are drugs really worse, and who gets to draw that line? 

The fact is that making alcohol sales and consumption illegal, would see some 20 million South Africans instantly classified as criminals, and destroy a large sector of the economy. It would lead to an overflow of our prisons, breaking even more familes apart, destroy the workforce, and boost unemployment. This is exactly what the prohibition of drugs has done, yet to a smaller extent. I’d agree that ‘tik’ is doing nothing but harm to the communities of the Cape flats, but is there any reason to believe that making drugs illegal is the best way to solve their problems?

Here are a couple of certain outcomes of legalising the use of cocaine, other drugs, and its associated industries in SA. 

1. A free market in cocaine would see victimless criminals let out of jail and back to their family.
2. It will free up police and other law enforcement resources to serve the people who actually need it.  
3. It reduces the size of government, which frees up resources for the private sector.
4. It takes away the scope for police corruption, Selebi-Agliotti type government-gang alliances.
5. It will take crime off the streets, reducing the incidence of underground drug gangs and related violence completely, as drug dealers would need to compete with each other on price and quality as do chemists. This has two effects:
   • By reducing the cost of drugs, it will concomitantly reduce the need of drug-users to turn to robbery and theft to sustain their addiction.
   • By improving the quality and consistency of drugs, there would be fewer incidence of quality-related deaths from rat-poison, or whatever other deadly substances may be found in poorer quality drugs.
6. It removes the stigma of drug use and lets drug addicts deal openly and honestly with their problems without fear of prosecution.
7. The government can stop guessing what the contribution to GDP of illegal trade, drugs and prostitution is, and they can also collect taxes from this industry (not that we like the idea of legalise theft, aka taxes, but this will be a consequence).
   • Collecting taxes from the drug industry will reduce existing taxpayers’ burdens.
8. It will bring more informative and more powerful anti-drugs messages and advertising.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, it leaves the fate of the drug industry to the consumer. There is a reason Woolies doesn’t stock mud-cakes in its check-out aisles across the country. If no-one wants mud-cakes at any price, there won’t be any mud-lords in the background dominating communities and governments to supply their product. As long as demand for drugs remains, the market remains. There are two ways in which we can live and deal with the consequences of drugs in our society. One is in a top-down socialist manner where someone gets to impose his principles and morals on others. The other is a bottom-up free market where responsibility is taken by the individual.