Editorial: All that cash in drug trade

As a reminder of the huge amounts of cash involved in the illegal narcotics trade, take this report from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Portland:

A 28-year-old man was arraigned in federal court there on Friday. When he was arrested after a search of his apartment, vehicle and person, investigators seized more than a kilogram of crack cocaine, as well as powder cocaine, two loaded firearms, a digital scale, and more than $87,000 in cash.

The cocaine was valued by the police at about $20,000 as packaged and about $100,000 if distributed as individual doses.

This young fellow, if he's convicted, faces at least 10 years and possibly life in prison. Why would anyone risk that? For vast amounts of cash.

This is one of the results of the war on drugs. The more successful this war - and this latest seizure is said to make a major dent in the cocaine supply for the Portland area, at least for a while - the higher the price of the illicit stuff, and the greater the earning potential of people with criminal intent, no scruples and an itch to get rich quick at a young age.

The alternative would be to ease up on drug enforcement, change the laws, let the idiot drug users kill themselves if they want, remove or lessen the amounts of money involved, and let the illegal drug culture wither away by itself over time.

Would that work? It's a shame we can't run some giant social experiment to find out.

What we know already is the result of the current approach: vast amounts of continuing effort by the police at all levels, thousands of people in prison, a continuing supply of illegal drugs, and a steady stream of money-hungry criminals ready to constantly replenish the supply. (hh)