Empowering the drug lords

Wisdom of the week

[Reprinted from Issues & Views September 22, 2003]

As true today as it was then . . .

From National Review, editorial, May 15, 1995:

The war on drugs has already caused a substantial loss of civil liberties, but this loss is apparently not substantial enough for one prominent congressman who has proposed that those who advocate the legalization of drugs should have their freedom of speech drastically curtailed as well. This attempt to stifle dissent by means of punitive taxation comes from the Republican end of the political spectrum, where the commitment to smaller government and greater individual liberty tends to be a mile wide and an inch deep.

Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-NY), chairman of the House Rules Committee, is not worried about critics of the war on drugs: "Legalization was jettisoned with Joycelyn (Elders) and is not coming back." Just in case, though, Solomon has introduced a bill that would deny tax-exempt status to nonprofit organizations "which promote the legalization of certain drugs." Solomon cited the Cato Institute, the Drug Policy Foundation, and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

His bill would presumably also target the Reason Foundation, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Lindesmith Center, the Religious Coalition for a Moral Drug Policy, and any other educational, scientific, literary, or religious organization that disagrees with Mr. Solomon about drug prohibition. "Seedy" people involved with such "sinister" groups, he said, seek not only to "justify their self-centered and self-indulgent lifestyles" but also "to influence young people to try and use drugs." Hence, the wisdom of Solomon: "Our tax law needs to more accurately reflect the American people's tolerance level for this type of activity."

And if the punitive taxation of unpopular ideas catches on, we can dispense with arguments and evidence entirely. That should make politicians like Mr. Solomon more comfortable.

From Herman Cubillos, former foreign minister of Chile, visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, in the Wall Street Journal, January 6, 1995:

By pushing Latin America's armies into a war on drugs (while trying to diminish them by other means) the U.S. is doing itself no good, while doing us harm. Armies that fight drug traffickers become corrupted by them. Moreover, our societies are threatened by the money that U.S. drug consumers and money launderers channel to criminals in Latin America. Two South American countries already have parallel governments financed by drug money.

If the U.S. wants to do some good, it should try to cut the southward flow of money. Better yet, it should either stop drug consumption with Singapore-style punishments, or legalize it. Either would destroy the drug lords. What the U.S. is now doing empowers them.

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