Since the "War on Drugs" is a major industry, would ending it cause huge economic damage?

Question

Please don't say drugs need to be stopped, or need to be legalized. This is not the place for that.

Answer 1

The impact on America's economy would be grave if the War on Drugs ended. There are so many people who make money from the sale & distribution in the US. These people in turn, employ other people. Then they take their drug earnings & purchase goods, like TVs;furniture;vacations;cars, that keep our economy strong.

Answer 2

If the 'War on Drugs' were changed to the 'Bureacracy to Manage the Legal Drug Industry', the only economic damage would be to the illegal trade.

Maintaining the 'War on Drugs' for economic reasons is the stupidest argument I've ever heard. Sorry.

Answer 3

Imagine the people who would be enabled to get off welfare - whether due to the instability that drugs created in their life, or spouse in jail or dead.

Imagine the people who could get out of debt and becoming financially stable again - because they are paying bills instead of drugs.

Imagine the mothers and fathers who would be present for their children - mentally and/or physically (because they are not doped up or in jail). This would free up a lot of finances going to Children's Homes and the likes.

Imagine the financial resources that could be allocated towards organizations that don't have to deal with drug rehab or organizations that help those who have aquired a disease or conceived a child (who's possbly going to have to be hospitalized due to withdrawals at birth) while on drugs.

Immagine the improvement to neighborhoods (that would additionally need less police patrols) because drugs were the primary source of income.

Immagine the school systems having to spend less on drug eduation, school counselors, and security problems.

I can completely immagine that any "economic damage" that occurs would only better America - and help the economy in the long run.

Answer 4

Yeah, it'd cause major economic damage to the DEA by putting them out of work. It'd cut deeply into Taliban/Al-Qaida money by taking the profits from their heroin manufacturing and putting it in the hands of government. Ending the War on Some Drugs would pretty much end the narco-based governments in South America, as they'd have no money from cocaine sales. Drug lords would lose their billions of dollars in profits every year.

The economic upside is that governments wouldn't have to pay to arrest, transport, incarcerate, and put on trial drug users, and it'd pretty much destroy the black market in drugs. Gang wars would cease, as they'd have no reason to fight over turf. Police forces could concentrate funds on finding murderers and rapists instead of tracking down Grandma's cannabis stash for her back pain.

Those who profit most from drugs being illegal are those who call for prohibition the most. The criminals are the ones who keep drugs illegal, and they should be thrown out on their @sses.

Answer 5

they should make drugs legal like they were up until 1920, and then make it available in stores like cigerettes, and charges lots of taxes on it and take the street value out of it, and put the money back into the governments pockets.

Cigerettes kill more people than anything else in the world, why not make pot legal. anyone ever die from that?

Answer 6

yes, it would cause severe economic damage because of many reasons.
first, the war on drugs, a 40 billion a year "industry", that creates many jobs that would be completely wiped out leaving our economy feebly, at best, trying to absorb the extra laborers. that 40 billion is only what the US federal government spends on the drug wars. that does not include states, other countries.

second, the lost salaries, would cause those employees to tighten their spending, and reduce cash flow in the American economy.
not only would agent salaries be gone, but the workers who produce the tools, weapons, technology, and vehicles they use would be losing their jobs.

that is the easy part to handle, though.

the rough part to handle, would be the loss of billions of US $$ that drug traffickers reinvest in legitimate ventures in the united states economy, as well as; the billions in liquid cash flow that would be halted as drug prices decline because they are easier to acquire, therefore, people aren't spending near the same amount of cash on them, which happens to be about 77 billion as of 1998 according to the DEA.

now this type of damage to our economy, would lead to huge problems in crime, and most likely national security problems, so eventually the agents working in drug enforcement can be rerouted to law enforcement, which many have as of 9/11/2001, but that would take time.
meanwhile, we would probably experience natioanl security threats from many sources, from poor starving to death, to terrorists and enemy nations thinking we are an easy target ina weakened state.
this is why it now becomes a national security problem if drug trade dies. that would explain why planes donated to the department of interior to fight forest fires, from the DoD has resurfaced in the hands of Columbian drug lords.

Answer 7

Only to the DEA Have you seen the latest Federal Report Claiming that Pot is this country's #1 cash crop?

Answer 8

No. The real money is in the war in Iraq.