The Economist: "Legalize Cocaine"

The contradictions and costs of drug prohibition are too big to ignore.

Once in a while, The Economist offers the straight dope. Once in a while, the magazine’s idealistic commitment to markets and capitalism leads them to a just conclusion. That was not the case with their defense of slavery, or for the magazine’s advocacy of violent coups. But when it comes to cocaine—go figure—the patron saints of capitalism get it right.

The Economist recently published an editorial with a no name by-line titled: “Joe Biden is too timid. It is time to legalise cocaine.” The cherry on top of the article was a cheeky heading that read: “Soften the blow.” One of their writers seems to have binged seasons 1 and 2 of HBO’s “Industry,” cued up Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light,” and penned a persuasive argument to end the decades-long prohibition of cocaine.

The editorial opens with President Biden’s recent pardoning of those who have been convicted of simple weed possession. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana,” Biden said. “It’s time that we right these wrongs.” Biden’s argument for a narrow and technocratic tweak to non-violent, non-serious drug crimes boils down to, in part, “it makes no sense.” That is, how the government schedules, regulates, and criminalizes marijuana is quite literally, sense-less.

President Biden @POTUS

Third: We classify marijuana at the same level as heroin – and more serious than fentanyl. It makes no sense. I’m asking @SecBecerra and the Attorney General to initiate the process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.

Speaking on the Senate floor in June 2000, a much younger Joe Biden advocated for “Plan Colombia,” in which billions of dollars in “aid” would be sent to Colombia to combat drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups. In the speech, Senator Biden spoke of good news and bad news. He said cocaine production had been (allegedly) wiped out in Bolivia and Peru. “The bad news is that it has all moved into Colombia,” Biden said. “They now are a full-service operation… The good news is it is all in one spot for us to be able to hit it. It is all in one spot for us to have a very efficacious use of this money.”

Twenty-two years and billions of dollars later, cocaine is still being made in Colombia. That’s despite Plan Colombia, aerial spraying campaigns, and years of brutal violence. Per The Economist: