Buying and
using illegal drugs is not a victimless crime. It
has negative consequences that can touch the lives
of people around the world. When Americans spend
money on illegal drugs, they are providing financial
support to groups that use violence and terror as a
way of doing business. Drug fueled violence in
Mexico over the last two years has cost at least
four thousand lives by most estimates, financed by
recreational users with disposable income in this
country.
Last week, the Associated
Press, Dallas Morning News, and Reuters covered the
role that drug money plays in funding violent drug
cartels in Mexico. Here's an excerpt from the
Dallas Morning News report:
"American drug users
are paying ruthless Mexican kingpins nearly
$14 billion annually for their meth, heroin,
cocaine and especially marijuana – monies
that are helping fund an unprecedented
bloody turf war that's threatening Mexican
institutions, the White House drug czar
said.
John P. Walters,
director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said marijuana, not heroin
or cocaine, is the "bread and butter," "the
center of gravity" for Mexican drug cartels
that every year smuggle tons of it through
the porous U.S.-Mexico border."
According
to our estimate, illicit-drug purchases in the
United States contribute more than $13.8 billion to
Mexican traffickers. The majority of that income
comes from marijuana sales, which accounts for 61
percent of that income, or $8.5 billion, eclipsing
the potential revenue from cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamine combined. Estimated revenue for
cocaine is $3.9 billion, methamphetamine $1 billion,
and heroin less than $400 million.
Despite the
large amount of funding deriving from the U.S.
demand for marijuana, however, youth use of the drug
is down substantially. According to the largest
survey on youth drug use in the United States, the
number of American high school students using
marijuana dropped by 25 percent between 2001 and
2007. Overall youth drug use has also declined 24
percent over the same period of time.
