Cannabis is fully legal in 18 states, Washington DC, and some U.S. territories. Moreover, 36 states and Washington DC have passed laws legalizing or decriminalizing medical marijuana. Worse, Oregon Measure 110 decriminalized all controlled substance, presaging broad drug legalization. Decriminalization is bad enough, but legalization puts drug dealers out of business. What criminal enterprise can compete against government-regulated, high-quality, and inexpensive legal drugs?
To cater to the robust demand for illegal drugs, we drug dealers compete with each other to be as violent and intimidating as possible. Murder is pretty commonplace, and all this violence encourages law enforcement to sink an impressive amount of resources into culling the weak. To be clear, police manage to damage our organizations occasionally, but this just clears the deadwood for fresh drug dealers to become new suppliers; demand is never affected. It’s like the circle of life and has inspired hundreds of hours of solid entertainment such as Miami Vice 1984-1989, Maria Full of Grace 2004, Breaking Bad 2008-2013, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within 2010, and American Made 2017. Drug legalization could make drug supply boring, and is a serious threat to popular entertainment themes.
How law enforcement has wasted resources trying (and failing) to stop illegal drug dealers creates distrust in the police and may have contributed to the 2020 Defund the police slogan. Fortunately, we anticipate that this slogan is political theatre and expect no real changes. The police mostly respond to whatever is classified as illegal. As long as drug distribution and trafficking penalties are severe enough, enforcement is going to be violent regardless of whether they are called “police” or “DEA” or whatever agency is charged with enforcing the laws.
Drug legalization would likely make it more difficult for teenagers to get their hands on drugs. Similar to alcohol purchase, buyers could be age checked. We anticipate a modest drop in demand because we won’t be able to get kids addicted early in life. This should make drug manufacturers nervous. We hope to ally with the sister group Drug Manufacturers Against Legalization (DMAL) to oppose drug legalization. Please reach out to us.
Legalization will likely reduce the frequency of overdoses and HIV transmission. Potentially the number of addicts could increase or remain stable since fewer people will die from drug use, but this is irrelevant to our business concerns because legalization would cut us out of the supply chain. People dying from drug use is a necessary evil; our paycheck depends on it.
Of course, we push the hardest of hard drugs because they are easy to transport (and most profitable). Back in the good old days of alcohol prohibition, did anybody smuggle low-alcohol beer? No, of course not. Whiskey was favored. Fentanyl and Synthetic Cannabinoids are our latest fine products. As drug dealers, we believe in easy access to drugs, and that means easy to carry and conceal. Support your local drug dealer; avoid the social stigma of ostentatious drug display.
Even without full legalization, decriminalization takes the wind out of our sails (and sales). With decriminalization, the risk inherent in drug dealing is reduced, reducing the risk premium and potential profits. Worse, millions of people currently incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses would be released. Given that the US has the world’s highest per-capita incarceration rate, this could cause some prisons to shut down, leading to unemployment of esteemed prison security professionals. We hope to ally with the Prisons Guards Against Drug Legalization (PGADL). Please reach out to us.
In a scenario of blanket legalization,
Support DDAL. Why a four-letter acronym? In part, it is a swipe at the failed and discredited Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (DARE).
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