How would drug legalization reduce problems associated with drug smuggling, including empowering cartels, gang violence, and human trafficking?
Question 108 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
This question is from Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded, available in paperback, PDF, and Kindle.
Any time there is high demand for a good or service, there is a profit-making opportunity in delivering that good or service. Prohibition creates new types of risks for the prohibited enterprise, and black market entrepreneurs plan accordingly.
In a legal market, competitors may compete for market share, but they typically do not do so through direct violence against each other. They compete based on price, quality, and other factors focusing on appealing to consumers. If an employee or contractor embezzles from the firm, that wrong is addressed in a legal proceeding in the courts.
In a prohibited market, manufacturers, distributors, and vendors all face the constant danger of government violence, confiscation of business and personal assets, and the arrest and imprisonment of their workers. This means that only individuals with a large appetite for risk-taking are likely to participate. It also means that when these individuals have disputes over market share or fulfillment of a contract, there is no legal means available for dispute resolution. This incentivizes violent reprisals instead of peaceful, civilized modes of addressing these conflicts.
Gangs typically develop as a response to a collective defense problem. Rather than fall prey to competing black market actors who want to acquire market share or low-cost inventory quickly through violence, people who are familiar to each other due to previous friendly acquaintance, family connection, or simple physical proximity may band together to provide for their common defense. People who perceive that they are in danger will often do dangerous things. And once accustomed to lawless living, these people are more likely to participate in other forms of unlawful but profitable victimization, like human trafficking, utilizing the smuggling and protection infrastructure that they have already established.