The War On Drugs Is Only A Symptom
The War On Drugs is a symptom of a broader, more pernicious social disease.
I like wine, sake, beer, and an occasional whiskey. I don’t drink alcohol every day. I sometimes binge at a party. I rarely party these days. I go months without drinking any alcohol. I’m probably an alcoholic who doesn’t drink much.
Tokyo and Hong Kong, where I’ve lived for ten years or more, have drinking cultures. I could elaborate, but I won’t. I drank a lot more in Japan and Hong Kong. I also love the food culture. I blame cycling and the gym for my not being obese.
I have known affluent people throughout my life who enjoy their recreational hard drugs. You name it, they’ve tried it. The drug of choice, of course, is cocaine. We are all familiar with famous entertainers who have died of drug and alcohol abuse.
Drug addiction and alcoholism are pernicious health problems that have a myriad of deep causes that can be hard to parse. Anyone suffering from drug addiction knows how hard it is to get clean and sober and continue to abstain from using.
Legalize it; don’t criticize it!
I recently read a piece on Medium about the cost of “The War on Drugs.” It is exceedingly costly and a “war” we can never win. Why is that?
Legalization didn’t increase drug use, or imply the acceptance of mind stupifying drugs by society. It takes drug dependency out of the closet, encouraging the afflicted population to seek medical help.
I’m under no illusion that one post on this subject will make everyone see reason, but maybe some of us will consider this as a solution that has escaped us for 70 years.
Indeed, a post on Medium will not solve the problem; at most, it may raise awareness among a few readers who are utterly unfamiliar with the issue.
What are the deeper structural, systemic, economic, and psychosocial causes of drug use, and who benefits from the “War On Drugs?”
For decades, I have read books, papers, and articles about Middle East conflicts and wars; I have read about the War on Drugs, the Russo-Ukraine war, and so on, which continue unabated. When one conflict zone cools, another ignites. When I vote, I always examine the candidate’s record on these conflicts, public health, and who the candidate is beholden to.
My simplistic, intuitive reaction to the continuation of these problems decade after decade is that these wars are lucrative for important Players in The Great Game, a game of wealth and power acquisition. Justice, democracy, freedom, and health matter little to the Players, primarily concerned with winning the game. Another way I could put it is that careers matter more than solving the problem—no problem, no career.
Incentives & Who Benefits
The US has a high incarceration rate, and private prisons have a financial incentive to keep cells and beds full. Drug-related offenses contribute significantly to this population. The drug war allows for increased budgets for police departments, drug enforcement agencies, and the military, including funding for equipment, surveillance technology, and personnel.
While some pharmaceutical companies develop addiction treatment medications, others may indirectly benefit from the focus on illegal drugs, as it deflects attention from the potential harm and addictive nature of certain prescription drugs. The “tough on crime” stance and the war on drugs have been popular political platforms, allowing politicians to gain votes and support. The drug business doesn’t end with producers, dealers, and traffickers; it’s part of the fabric of The Great Game’s business interests.
Structural & Systemic Factors
Drug use and trafficking are often concentrated in marginalized and economically disadvantaged communities. Lack of opportunities, systemic racism, and social instability contribute to this. People have a problem with the idea that systemic racism exists, but there can be no doubt that certain classes of people suffer more under our current scheme.
Making drugs illegal creates a black market where prices are inflated, and violence is used to control territory and supply, benefiting criminal organizations. Efforts have focused mainly on stopping drug production and trafficking, but this doesn’t work. Demand for drugs remains, leading to new suppliers and routes. I am always pointing out that if Americans and Europeans from all classes didn’t want drugs, the war on drugs would stop. Compared to enforcement, funding for addiction treatment, harm reduction, and prevention programs is inadequate and perpetuates the cycle of drug use and crime.
Are we living in a sick society? What are the psychosocial causes of Drug Use?
There is so much information about the causes of drug abuse going back hundreds of years, and yet the problem, like so many other cultural pathologies, continues to cause harm.
We like our mind and behavior-modifying substances. There are no reasons to believe we will ever stop wanting to get “high.”
Adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and untreated mental health conditions increase vulnerability to drug use and addiction. Peer pressure, social isolation, and exposure to drug use can contribute to experimentation and addiction. Drugs can provide temporary relief from emotional pain, stress, and difficult life circumstances.
Some drugs are socially accepted. People still smoke and drink.
The alcohol and tobacco industries are vast, with many publicly and privately held companies. I can’t imagine Portugal, France, or Italy without wine.
The global market value for alcoholic beverages is estimated at around $1.5 trillion in 2022 and is projected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2025 (Source: Statista). Major companies like AB InBev, Diageo, Heineken, and Pernod Ricard generate tens of billions in revenue annually. The market is influenced by changing consumer preferences, economic conditions, and marketing strategies.
The Global Tobacco market value is estimated at approximately $850 billion in 2022. (Source: Statista) The dominant players are Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and China National Tobacco Corporation. The industry faces declining smoking rates in many countries, increased regulation, and public health concerns. However, it remains highly profitable due to addictive products and effective marketing.
The black market for both alcohol and tobacco is significant, making it harder to track the full extent of the industries' financial activity.
It's crucial to remember that these profits come at a high cost to society. Alcohol and tobacco use contribute to numerous health problems, including cancer, heart disease, and addiction, resulting in substantial healthcare expenses and lost productivity.
If we all had to subsist on what nature provides, we wouldn’t have time for recreational drugs. One might wonder how often the Vikings binged. I should look that up sometime. This trade is a modern, technological, and industrial period problem.
The illicit drug trade is big business.
In older reports (late 1990s), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated the illicit drug trade to be worth around $400 billion annually, representing about 8% of total international trade at that time. However, more recent, precise figures from this source are hard to come by. Some sources suggest the market could be considerably larger, with figures ranging from $426 billion to $652 billion annually. These estimates take into account the growing demand for synthetic drugs and the constantly evolving dynamics of the drug trade.
Transactions occur in the shadows, making it difficult to track the flow of money and drugs. Drug prices vary significantly depending on the substance, location, and purity. The illicit drug trade involves producers, traffickers, distributors, and retailers, making it hard to trace the full value chain. Traffickers constantly adapt to law enforcement efforts, finding new ways to move drugs across borders.
The illicit drug trade is a massive global market, generating hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
"With estimates of $100 billion to $110 billion for heroin, $110 billion to $130 billion for cocaine, $75 billion for cannabis and $60 billion for synthetic drugs, the probable global figure for the total illicit drug industry would be approximately $360 billion. Given the conservative bias in some of the estimates for individual substances, a turnover of around $400 billion per annum is considered realistic."
Illicit wealth fuels criminal organizations, corruption, and violence, destabilizing communities and undermining governments.
Transnational organized crime doesn't just steal money; it steals futures, corrupts communities, and destroys lives. The billions lost to illicit financial flows represent missed opportunities, lost livelihoods, and deepened poverty. In Africa alone, equivalent to nearly $90 billion or about 3.7 per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is lost yearly to illicit financial flows.
There will never be a dearth of information about the illicit drug trade.
We know a lot about the illicit drug trade and the cost of drug addiction to society. It’s time to admit that The Players are not incentivized to implement any solutions that are not directly profitable to them.
The “Great Game”
Powerful players benefit from the war on drugs. Despite its questionable effectiveness, the continued focus on prohibition suggests that certain entities have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The war on drugs is a tool for social control, wealth extraction from marginalized communities, and maintaining power structures.
Globally, drug control has had massive costs for the dignity, humanity, and freedom of people of African descent, with reports showing that people of African descent face disproportionate and unjust law enforcement interventions, arrests, and incarceration for drug-related offenses. In various countries, the ‘war on drugs’ has been more effective as a system of racial control than as a tool to reduce drug markets. Policing interventions based on racial profiling remain widespread, whilst access to evidence-based treatment and harm reduction for people of African descent remains critically low.
Books
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
American Fix: Inside the Opioid Addiction Crisis—and How to End It by Ryan Hampton
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Drug War Capitalism by Dawn Paley
Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
Movies & TV Series
“Sicario” (gritty, realistic portrayals of the drug war)
Traffic (2000) Explores the drug trade from multiple perspectives, including a drug czar, a DEA agent, and a judge.
City of God (2002) is A Brazilian film depicting the growth of organized crime and drug violence in a Rio de Janeiro favela.
No Country for Old Men (2007) is A neo-western thriller set against the backdrop of the drug trade along the US-Mexico border.
Hell or High Water (2016) Examines the desperation and moral ambiguity that can arise from economic hardship and the drug trade.
“The Wire” (complex narratives, systemic analysis)
Narcos (Netflix) Chronicles the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar and the Colombian drug cartels.
Narcos: Mexico (Netflix) This series focuses on the origins of the Mexican drug war and the Guadalajara Cartel.
Breaking Bad (AMC) Follows a high school chemistry teacher who turns to cooking meth to secure his family’s financial future.
ZeroZeroZero (Amazon Prime) presents a global perspective on the cocaine trade, following the journey of a shipment from Mexico to Europe.
The Shield (FX) is a controversial police drama exploring corruption and moral compromises within a Los Angeles police unit.
The “War on Drugs” has created a multi-billion dollar industry that benefits a wide range of powerful Players of The Great Game. Private prison corporations reap enormous profits from incarcerating non-violent drug offenders; their bottom line is directly tied to harsh sentencing policies. Law enforcement agencies receive increased funding and expanded powers in the name of drug enforcement, often with little oversight, creating a system where the focus is on arrests and seizures rather than addressing the root causes of drug use and addiction.
Mass incarceration is particularly devastating for poor communities, immigrants, people of color, and their families. For-profit firms have flooded money into prison and immigration jail infrastructure and services, and have used industry associations to lobby for harsher policing and longer sentencing, even for non-violent offenders. People who are incarcerated work for pennies per hour while their families pay exorbitant fees to keep them supplied with bare necessities. Powerful, private equity interests and corporations reap enormous profits from the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the policing of immigration.
Furthermore, there’s a long and troubling history of intelligence agencies like the CIA being involved in the drug trade. The most notorious example is Air America, a CIA-operated airline during the Vietnam War that was implicated in transporting heroin from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle. While the official narrative denies any complicity, evidence suggests that the CIA turned a blind eye to, or even actively facilitated, drug trafficking to fund covert operations, not only undermining the stated goals of the drug war but also eroding public trust in government institutions.
The immense profits generated by the drug trade inevitably lead to corruption, ensnaring politicians and law enforcement officials. Bribes, campaign contributions, and other illicit financial incentives can influence policy decisions and weaken enforcement efforts. A revolving door exists where those tasked with upholding the law become complicit in its violation. Moreover, the demand for drugs like cocaine often comes from affluent circles. Wealthy businesspeople and celebrities use cocaine as a status symbol and party drug, creating a lucrative market for traffickers. The war on drugs is marked by grotesque hypocrisy, where the wealthy can often afford to indulge in their vices while marginalized communities bear the brunt of enforcement.
A new culture
Creating a culture prioritizing health over profits is a monumental task that challenges the foundation of our current economic and social systems. It requires a fundamental shift in values, moving away from the relentless pursuit of economic growth and material wealth and toward a focus on well-being, sustainability, and social justice. Creating a new way of life is not simply about individual choices but transforming deeply ingrained societal structures and power dynamics.
One of the biggest hurdles is overcoming the dominance of the profit motive. Our current economic system rewards businesses for maximizing profits, often at the expense of worker health, environmental integrity and sustainability, and ethical considerations. To prioritize health, we need to redefine success, measuring it not just in terms of financial gain but also by indicators of well-being, social progress that puts life first, and ecological balance. A new world requires rethinking our economic models, promoting alternative business structures like cooperatives and social enterprises, and implementing policies prioritizing human and environmental health over corporate interests.
Changing cultural norms is a generational process. Consumerism, pursuing material possessions, and glorifying wealth are deeply ingrained in many societies. Shifting towards a culture that values health and well-being requires challenging these norms and promoting alternative narratives prioritizing community, connection, and a more balanced approach to life. Education, public awareness campaigns, and grassroots movements are crucial for driving this cultural transformation.
Creating a culture prioritizing health over profits is a complex and multifaceted challenge. It requires a collective effort involving individuals, communities, businesses, and governments working together to create a more just and sustainable future. While the path may be long and arduous, the potential rewards—a healthier, happier, and more equitable society—are well worth striving for.
I have more radical ideas about what’s needed. None would be considered popular, and all of them require sacrifice, recognition of our limits, degrowth, and population considerations—all third-rail issues.
What are the odds that a critical mass of people worldwide and across cultures will sacrifice their time, energy, money, and possibly even their lives to change how people live?
Our current way of life is self-terminating. Even if we had “too cheap to meter” energy and technology to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it on Mars, it would still destroy civilization and possibly bring our species to the brink of extinction.
The War On Drugs is just another symptom of a deeper problem with our way of doing things and thinking about things. I can’t help but want to see us do better.
