Trump’s Tariff-Drug War Nonsense
Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, has announced that Trump’s tariffs against Mexico and Canada should not be considered a trade war but rather part of America’s “war on drugs.” As soon as Mexico and Canada stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, he says, the tariffs will be lifted.
Politicians and bureaucrats are well-known for making nonsensical statements, but this one is a real doozy. How can an intelligent person make such a ridiculous statement?
The war on drugs has been going for decades. That’s because American consumers want drugs and are willing to pay for them. To meet that enormous demand, other people sell them the drugs they want to buy.
Decades ago, U.S. officials decided that Americans should not be ingesting substances that are harmful to them — well, except for tobacco and alcohol, which Americans, for some reason, are permitted to ingest. To prevent Americans from ingesting unapproved substances, U.S. officials made it a criminal offense to possess or distribute such substances.
But a big problem arose: The criminalization of possession of certain substances did not end the big desire among Americans to continue ingesting such substances.
Another big problem arose: The criminalization of selling the drugs did not end the desire to make money from continuing to sell drugs to people who continued desiring to consume them.
Thus, drug prohibition failed to end either the possession or the sale of drugs. Instead, what it did was to create a massive black market in drugs, one in which the sellers consisted of an unsavory element in society, one that consisted of cartels, drug gangs, and people willing to employ violence in this ille
Article from The Future of Freedom Foundation
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