Drug Trafficking: Enough is Enough!

Like alcohol and tobacco, the consumption of drugs is one’s personal responsibility. The harmful effects of consuming drugs must be made known. But as Araceli Manjón recently underscored, prohibiting drugs has been an enormous error, creating mafias that threaten the security of entire nations, traffickers that become murderers, and drug addicts who turn their lives and those of their families into an immense tragedy.

“Prohibition” was a failure. When prohibition was lifted, the Al Capones disappeared.

In May of this year I wrote a blog recommending decriminalization, as did the former Spanish President Felipe González a few days ago, amid much media attention.

In my May blog I wrote: "...given the dimension of drug trafficking and its economic and criminal impact, drug consumption affects society as a whole".

A large part of Afghanistan’s problems –and those involving the Taliban- would disappear if suddenly cultivating opium became unprofitable. 90% of the world’s heroin comes from Afghanistan. And each hectare of opium poppies yields 13,000 dollars... when cultivating grain earns less than 500.

The same would occur in Colombia and other American countries: if cocaine prices were to suddenly drop, the mafia violence generated by drug trafficking would finally come to an end.

Europe should lead this great decision, which some oppose in good faith, while others do so to defend the immense benefits they obtain... with no thought for the destruction of personal lives and families... and without having to listen to a guilty conscience, since they long ago sold their souls.

With this, as with so many other questions, we must take a radically different approach. We must consider the matter without prejudice, without taking up immovable positions and rejecting a priori any suggestion of change.

Yes, decriminalization, so that drugs will cost no more than a package of cigarettes or a bottle of wine. And the immediate closing of tax havens, which I recently supported (blog--3.05.10). Both are difficult measures due to the immense benefits they generate, and due to the inertia that prompts our “stable society” to reject any change of course.

Without drug trafficking and without the tax havens that support it, the world would suddenly be a better place.

Let’s awaken from our long slumber and raise our voices to make this happen, through Internet and all of the means at our disposal: drug trafficking, enough is enough!