The U.S. government’s drug warriors have recently made another drug bust, adding to the countless number of drug busts it has made since the drug war was launched decades ago. Their latest target is Emma Colonel Aispura, the wife of the famous Mexican drug lord El Chapo, who the feds convicted and incarcerated for life for drug-war violations. Although Coronel attended her husband’s trial in 2019 in Brooklyn, the feds, for some unexplained reason, waited until 2021 to bust her while she was at Dulles Airport.
One possibility, of course, is that they plan to squeeze her into squealing on other Mexican drug lords who they can import from Mexico and put into American prisons. Regardless, it really doesn’t matter whether they target her or people they get her to snitch on. The drug war will just continue on with more drug busts and incarcerations.
In other words, no matter who they bust or how many people they bust, things will remain the same. They always have. There is no end to this federal government program. It’s a money maker for federal judges, federal prosecutors, federal agents, federal clerks, and the entire federal drug-war bureaucracy. That’s why these people love it so much. And they all know that there is no end to it. The drug war is as perpetual as the federal “war on terrorism,” another great big perpetual money-making racket that keeps the entire military-industrial complex in high cotton.
For decades, drug-war proponents exclaimed, “If only they would really crack down and really enforce these drug laws, we would win!” But over the years, they have cracked down, viciously, and yet the drug war just keeps going and going and going. Of course, the federal people who thrive off the drug war are the ones who continue winning.
Let’s assume though that the feds were given the omnipotent power to really crack down in the war on drugs by being empowered to kill whoever they suspected of being a drug-war violator. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate way to crack down and finally “win” the war on drugs?
Well, that’s not really a hypothetical. It’s a reality. That’s what happened in the Philippines. Since 2016, the government’s drug agents have been empowered to win the war on drugs by simply killing drug-war violators. Since then, over 12,000 Filipinos have been killed, mostly poor people.
So, there you have it — the ultimate way to win the war on drugs by cleansing society of drug-war violators by simply killing them. What better way to win the war on drugs than to crack down like that, right? We could get the U.S. military to perform that task here in the United States.
Except for one thing: They still haven’t won the war on drugs in the Philippines. They are still waging the drug war more fiercely than ever. It seems that the ultimate crackdown can’t win the war on drugs after all. The war just keeps continuing and continuing and continuing.
There are two groups of people who benefit from all this government mayhem: the drug lords and government officials. They both thrive off of drug illegality. If drugs were legal, both groups would be out of business and would have to find meaningful work elsewhere. That’s why they both have a vested interest in keeping the drug war going, no matter how destructive and no matter how futile.
The fact is that government has no more business controlling what people ingest, buy, or sell than it does controlling what they read. It’s simply none of the government’s business. And as we learned during the war on booze, and as we have learned in the war on drugs, when government crosses the line and begins controlling what people ingest, buy, and sell, the results are horrific.
The federal prosecution of Emma Colonel Aispura will generate big headlines and press coverage, just as so many other drug busts have since the drug war was launched long ago. Regardless of whether Colonel is convicted or acquitted, the drug war will go on, in perpetual search for the next person to target, prosecute, and incarcerate.
The post The Destructive Futility of the Drug War appeared first on The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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