Legalize by Max Rendall

Author:Max Rendall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781906768973
Publisher: Stacy International

Violence is not one of the most obvious consequences of illegal drug taking, but it is there, lurking in the background. The use of some drugs can cause violent behaviour in certain circumstances. Crack cocaine comes most readily to mind, but violence is not a common feature of drug use. Ironically, violence is a very frequent concomitant of the use of the most common mind-altering drug – alcohol. This is, of course, completely legal, and widely abused. It leads to domestic violence, and yobbish and antisocial behaviour on a major scale. Our town centres bear witness to this every Saturday night, and it is not now confined to men. Binge-drinking young girls pose both a social nuisance and a threat to their own health. But these problems pale into insignificance compared to the ghastly range of criminal and murderous violence accompanying the production and trafficking of illegal drugs on the international stage.

If drugs are illegal, they are, by definition, the concern of organized criminals. Drugs are also the source of astronomic sums of money, which can match the Gross Domestic Product of some nation states. These drugs are so profitable because they are illegal, and the risks involved in dealing with them are extremely well rewarded. Drugs are not expensive to produce, and the profits to be earned are almost unimaginable.

Both heroin and cocaine require large acreages to grow, and are labour-intensive to harvest. It is no surprise, therefore, that they originate in countries where central government has tenuous control over some of its territory and struggles to maintain its authority. These conditions apply in Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, among others, where circumstances also favour the growth of guerrilla armies. They find common cause with local farmers and protect them from any attempts by central government forces to interfere with their illegal agricultural activities. In exchange, the guerrillas demand highly profitable trading rights to finance their activities and pay for weapons. They in turn trade with armed criminal organizations engaged in refining or transforming the drugs as well as ‘taxing’ the cultivation and movement of the raw opium and coca leaves.

Criminal drug trafficking organizations make such huge profits that they will go to any lengths to further their ends. In South America and Mexico they have come to be known as ‘cartels’ whose members are usually recruited from the poor and deprived. Cartels offer a means for the underclass of local communities, whose culture they celebrate, to acquire power and money. In some cases, Mexican cartels draw inspiration from syncretic folk Catholicism, presided over by the Virgin of Guadalupe. Their activities will usually involve either violent confrontation with the governments of transit countries, or usurping the government altogether by means of high-level corruption. Strong or democratic governments have to be confronted, but weak or autocratic regimes can be suborned. This latter is the traffickers’ preference because it allows them to get on with their business without interference and the losses involved in outright confrontation with the forces of law and order.

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