I live in Port-au-Prince. Since moving here at least four of Haiti's
presidents and one prime minister have been rumored to be involved in
the drug trade. Two of the presidents were military, two were civilian
but only one was elected. The implications of this are astounding.
Imagine a logistical apparatus made up of the police, the army, the
ports, the banks, and the judicial system, just to transport illegal
drugs.
Haiti has at times been credited with transporting up to 15% of cocaine
entering the United States, in other words, a billion dollar industry.
Even more outrageous is that when these illegal drugs enter the United
States, they just disappear. No one talks about the effects of these
illegal drugs on U.S. police, judges, courts, banks and consumers. I'm
sure if Haiti is experiencing this degradation of society, due to the
drug trade, so is Mexico, another "border country". Likewise one should
ask, what's happening on the other side of the border: Florida,
California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas? Are they corruption free?
The more visible illegal immigration issue should give you an idea of
the situation.
The infrastructure used to transport illegal substances into the U.S.
can be adapted to import other products. If the U.S. can't stop all the
drugs, how are they going to stop the terrorists sending supplies
and/or weapons? The only way to expose the narco infrastructure is with
transparency and the sunlight of legalization. I'm not saying I approve
of drug use, I'm simply stating that we're closing our eyes to a
problem and refusing to take rational steps to counter it. We're
heading down a dangerous path.
Current U.S. policies have failed. The drug war is a bust; too much
money combined with too few results. The tax advantage has to be
considered. Couldn't we be building schools, while paying for drug
treatment and financing health care systems with monies earned from
taxing the drugs? Couldn't monies currently supporting the DEA go
towards shoring up our borders and entry ports?
Eventually this will be a National Security issue. Our borders are too
porous. We can't afford to have our ports shackled under the weight of
corruption. We can't afford to have government officials tempted by
millions of dollars in kickbacks. In the end, transparency will be the
only remedy and transparency means legalization.