Sort of legalizing cocaine

This is an article by Daniel Bruno Sanz proposing the legalization and taxation of hard drugs as a means of curing many social ills in the US. With drugs legalized, the price would fall, which would lower the appeal of the drug trade for the criminal elements that plague our society. This would make our cities better places to live, and reduce the unprecedented amount of prisoners in US jails. Lower drug prices would also weaken international bad guys that rely on the high profits of drug production and smuggling to support their nefarious activities. And all this while tax revenue from hard drugs would reduce government budget shortfalls and increase resources for drug rehabilitation programs. The ideas are nothing new, but the author articulates them well and more or less succinctly. Skip the long-winded financialese first part and start reading at the heading, "Where Will the Money Come From If All the Banks Are Insolvent?".

Understandably, Sanz writes from a US point of view. I have also been thinking about this issue, but from a Colombian perspective. Of course it would be great for many Colombians if the US were to legalize cocaine, because it would remove the violence from large swathes of the Colombian countryside. World cocaine prices would fall, so the armed groups that plague us here would no longer have a lucrative source of funds by taxing the drug trade, and this would weaken them and in turn return many areas to a peaceful normalcy. The drop in prices would also lower profitability for those farmers currently growing coca, but I think many of them would gladly plant other crops, or even continue producing cocaine but at a reduced price, in exchange for peace and security for their families. Likewise we could save vast areas of natural ecosystems by ending the eternal cat and mouse game whereby farmers plant coca, the government sprays it with herbicide after a few months, and farmers move on to cut down virgin forest and plant more coca.

The problem is that Colombia can't wait on policy changes in another country to solve the woes caused by the drug trade. The ideal would be for Colombia's government to simply say, "We're tired of a civil war created by foreign addictions that are not under our control. We will unilaterally legalize cocaine, and if that causes problems in other countries, then so be it." However, like many governments, Colombia's is inextricably linked to the United States. Such a drastic policy move by Colombia could easily result in economic and political sanctions from abroad.

But there might be a loophole. What if Colombia could effectively legalize production and commerce of cocaine, without making an explicit, radical stand? The Netherlands has a liberal drug policy without suffering repercussions from the UN or other countries, but Colombia is not in a position to openly implement such a policy. But the UN and most countries that I know of provide for a limited, regulated traffic and use of narcotics for medical purposes. For instance, cocaine is used as a local anesthetic in certain surgeries. The shipping of this legal cocaine from the Andean producer countries to the medical consumer countries presumably follows some standardized legal procedure.

I propose that Colombia declare all of its coca fields to be destined for medicinal use in other countries, or rather that the government not prosecute growers and sellers of coca and cocaine who claim to be supplying the legal global medical trade of the drug. Obviously the amount of cocaine produced in Colombia far exceeds the real medical demand in the world, but that doesn't have to be Colombia's concern. This way cocaine could be legally moved within Colombia and shipped from its ports as long as there were a certificate affirming the medical destination of the drug. The Colombian authorities would ingenuously accept any such certificate on good faith. International shipping companies and criminal organizations could dedicate themselves to fabricating falsified medical documents, which would allow them to move the cocaine out of Colombia and to consumer countries. The problems in a consumer country like the US would remain the same--high prices due to the smuggled, illicit nature of the drug, and all the violence, suffering, and addiction that go with high prices and illicit trafficking. But Colombia would have effectively shut itself of those problems, by transferring the criminal part of the supply chain to other countries.

Such a policy of seemingly naive acceptance of all Colombian cocaine production and commerce would allow the government to do a few wonderful things. It could tax cocaine like any other export product, hence bolstering government revenues. Granted, the illegal armed groups operating in the Colombian countryside could continue smuggling cocaine without paying taxes, and indeed if the amounts produced and marketed from Colombia remained the same, cocaine's illegality in other countries would maintain a high price and hence an incentive for armed groups to keep producing and profiting from it. But a legalization of the drug would allow the government to permit and in fact encourage widespread production even in areas of Colombia under government control (as opposed to now, when cocaine is mainly produced in areas controlled by illegal armed actors). Such a widespread, legal production would effectively flood the world market with the drug, hence lowering prices despite its illegality elsewhere. Lowered prices would mean less revenue for the armed groups that currently finance themselves with cocaine, and hence the Colombian government would be able to advance in its fight against illegal insurgency. Legalizing cocaine might eventually lower crime in Colombia as well as lowering armed insurgency, because the mafias that participate in drug smuggling would no longer have a coveted prize to fight over. Hence Colombia's major problems of armed insurgency and mafia violence could be in large part resolved by my recommended policy of de facto, turn-a-blind-eye cocaine legalization. In the event of other countries' complaining or withholding aid or trade from Colombia, the government could insist with an honest heart that all cocaine production in Colombia is slated for legal medical use.

Another idea of mine related to this is more small-scale. It would consist in creating a recreational drug farm here in Colombia. Even without the government's declaring all cocaine legal, Colombian law permits the carrying of a personal dose of marijuana and cocaine. I think you're allowed something like a gram of cocaine and five grams of marijuana. Under such a law, possession and consumption of small amounts of narcotics are legal. So I could start a farm for visitors, but in addition to the typical agrotourism routine of milking goats and preparing food from garden-fresh ingredients, guests could pick coca or marijuana leaves for chewing or smoking. We would have small plantations of cannabis, coca, and perhaps opium poppies. There could even be a workshop where guests distill a bunch of coca leaves into a personal dose of cocaine, using the disagreeable mix of acetone, gasoline, and hydrochloric acid typical of the process. Following the procedure that peasants of remote regions employ to produce cocaine would be a learning experience for guests, and perhaps even a deterrent to future drug use!