Stop Funding Terrorism Through Drug Prohibition
A Few Thoughts By Eric E. Sterling

There are important connections between the illegal drug trade and global terrorism.

Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of illegal opium, the raw material for illegal heroin. Middlemen in this illegal trade gather millions of dollars in profits. The Taliban has taxed these profits, and uses them to finance their effort to undermine the legitimate government in Afghanistan.

In 2001, a kilogram of cocaine cost $1,565 in Colombia. During the same year, a kilogram of cocaine cost about $21,500 in the United States. Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Illicit Drug Trends 2003 (New York, NY: UNODC, 2003), p. 260.

Colombia is one of the three largest producers of coca leaf, the raw material for illegal cocaine. Paramilitary forces and guerillas use the money from the coca and cocaine markets to finance their weapons purchases, their attacks on schools and government offices, and their assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

The flow of drug money begins with buyers of illegal drugs. The biggest cumulative profits are made at the retail and wholesale levels in the U.S. and Europe. The profits at the "farmgate" or in the desert of Aghanistan or the jungle of Colombia are infinitesimal compared to the profits made at other points in the illegal drug market.

But a key reason that coca and opium are grown where they are grown is that farmers are far removed from other markets. Coca and opium -- because they are illegal -- are the most profitable crops that can be grown, and can best enable farmers to feed their children.

And the profits -- because they are illegal -- are in cash, not traced or reported, and are among the best sources for clandestine terrorist organizations to buy weapons and finance operations.

In 2001, a kilogram of heroin cost $610 in Pakistan. During the same year, a kilogram of heroin cost about $25,000 in the United States. Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Illicit Drug Trends 2003 (New York, NY: UNODC, 2003), p. 243.

There are three potential strategies:

(1) Investigate the money flows, which is extremely difficult and expensive, and never very effective.
(2) Reduce drug consumption by prevention, treatment and punishment.  Prevention initiatives have proven remarkably ineffective. Punishment is extremely expensive and socially counterproductive, as well as have been proven ineffective.  Treatment is effective over time, but is expensive, and thirty five years after President Nixon's major innovations in treatment, fails to reach 85 percent of those Americans who need treatment. The reduction of drug consumption has to increase by two orders of magnitude to be effective.
(3) Legalize the commerce in drugs by regulating use, distribution, manufacturing and cultivation of drugs. This will drive the price of drug crops down, and remove most of the market incentives to sell drugs for the benefit of terrorists.
Obviously such an innovation needs to be carefully considered and planned.

But if Americans are serious about preventing terrorist attacks on the scale of 9-11, we ought to consider thoroughly the potential value and feasibility of an effective way to stop funding terrorism, such as legalizing the commerce in drugs.

To dismiss this approach out of hand is as foolish as saying that we can't possibly inspect every piece of checked luggage for the presence of a bomb because that would be a big job.

This website is gathering documents and arguments to enable you to think about how the world's peoples can help stop funding terrorism.