Today, drugs are more available, higher potency, and harder than ever to determine whether a pill is regulated or contaminated.
In the last several months, the federal government has added a new twist to the current fight to keep drugs out of the US and away from our children. We’ve blown up several boats of suspected drug traffickers. That approach brings up a lot of concerns on a host of fronts, but even if it didn’t, no amount of interdiction or escalation of tactics will ever stop drugs.
In a recent End It For Good podcast episode with Sgt. Terry Blevins (ret.), he shares his experiences of working on both sides of the border in law enforcement and national security training, and one of his points is that consumer demand in the United States for drugs is what keeps them coming. Demand always drives supply.
As long as there’s money to be made, there is an endless supply of people willing to make it. And if we’re willing to allow the government to kill suspected drug traffickers offshore without a trial, how long will it be before we shift to killing them onshore without a trial?
Fundamental values and rights are being eroded in the name of saving people like my sons from drugs. It doesn’t work that way. It will never work.
President Trump knows that opening legal markets for adults to buy regulated drugs is the only way to win the war against trafficking.
The American people don’t need the erosion of our rights and values to keep us safe. We need the protection of our rights and an acknowledgement that the only way to win the drug war is to stop funding the cartels by banning legal markets for popular drugs, rewarding traffickers with billions of dollars.
Not only are legal markets the only way to stop trafficking, they’re the only way to set age restrictions on purchasing and to ensure that even the drugs that minors get their hands on are regulated products instead of fentanyl-laced pills from a clandestine press.
Bombing boats does nothing to stop drugs or keep our kids safe.
Legal, regulated drug markets will do that much more effectively.