A Referendum on Death

A Bloodthirsty Congress

The Congress is upset over the fact that Washington, DC, the nation's capital is also the murder capital of the United States. The Congress in its wisdom is not asking how this could have come about, they are merely ordering the District of Columbia to conduct a referendum on the death penalty. Washington, DC is a major cocaine market. Most of the deaths in Washington, DC are drug related deaths mostly associated with territory. Since the drug traffic is the only truly free market we have in the United States it should not be unreasonable to understand that part of the cost of doing business is death. The drug traffickers are mostly young people, the self same sort of people the military recruits to go kill other youths of the same proclivity. If there is one thing about this group of young men it is that they do not fear death. As a matter of fact the more strict and stern the law enforcement, the better it is for business and the dumb guys in the drug business are eliminated from the ecosystem. This keeps everybody on their toes and opens up opportunities for up and coming killers.

The Congressmen who are pushing death for drugs simply do not understand the dynamics and what useful ecological factors they are in the operation of the drug ecosystem. They keep up the prices, they keep the stupid ones off the street, and they establish the overall conditions that make the drug trade as profitable as it is. And it is very profitable. The gun lobby is also doing its part by defending the private ownership of highly sophisticated hand weapons, and in general by providing the environment where it is reasonable to be able to procure any kind of hand gun at reasonable prices, anywhere in the country. Even the presidents support then National Rifle Association. What could be better for the drug people than have the presidents of the United States support the ecology of their business. The vaunted 2nd Amendment that the NRA thinks is the sacred right to own a gun, is an amendment about the militia and how a barkeep can't take a militia man's arms (gun) away from him for a bar bill. Myth is myth. Why should the drug people care what myths keep the drugs and guns flowing?

Drugs have overwhelmed the nation because the drug dealers provide services that large numbers of Americans want, at prices they can afford, and on a time schedule that meets needs and requirements. They are doing what any good business men do except they do more. They make so much money that they can afford to counter any move any law enforcement agency is likely to take against them. They can afford the finest weapons, cars, lawyers, transportation. They can buy law enforcement officers, judges, customs officials, transportation companies, banks, maybe even a country or two. So some macho Congressmen are going to force the District of Columbia to hold a referendum, so that the District can join the other blood thirsty States, so that they can teach the drug dealers a lesson. Congressmen these people may be, they are not ecologists or, death dealing businessmen. This leads to two interesting possibilities should the District fail to enact the death penalty, or should they enact the death penalty and it does not deter murder in the District.

The first possibility would be to have the CIA with some crack units of the military take over the U.S. drug business. They can go around and take all the territories, killing as necessary to gain control of the U.S. distribution network. Once they have control of the U.S. network, they; could sell drugs and send the money to the U.S. Treasury or they could stop selling drugs and risk rivals reestablishing the old networks. In either case they would be busy at the kind of work they like to do for a long time.

The second possibility would be for the Congress to realize that all the evil of the drug trade stems from the fact that it is so profitable and supported by so many using citizens that the only thing to be done (ecologically) is to take the money out of the system.

We have a system of government that is good at taking the money out of the system so good in fact that they have run up a 4 trillion debt keeping money out of the hands of everyone except the truly rich. Some of this same sort of thinking has to be applied to the drug business. Maybe the money is going to the wrong people and it has to be re-routed (as in 1 above) or maybe there has to be a recognition that there is a greater cost to society for the law enforcement associated with the futile attempt to keep drugs out of the hands of ordinary Americans, than the drugs are doing in the hands of ordinary Americans. The cure seems to be a helluva lot worse than the crime. With law enforcement going full tilt we have at jeopardy, (1) the law enforcement system, (2) the judiciary, (3) the legislative system, (4) basic civil and human rights, and (5) lives of ordinary people in ordinary neighborhoods throughout the nation. If the money were out of the system, at jeopardy would be none of the above.

Some basic statistics: the number of people killed by smoking cigarettes—350,000 to 400,000; the number of people killed in automobile accidents—50,000; the number who kill themselves with alcohol—40,000; the number of people killed from cocaine overdoses—8,000. All numbers on an annual basis. The number of dollars. spent to fight drugs—7,000,000,000. The amount of money that the U.S. spends for drugs—150,000,000,000. The number of people who kill themselves with cocaine seems to be a modest number, probably less than the hunting deaths in the United States in any given year. Who knows the number of law enforcement officers killed, or kids on their way to or from school, let alone actual drug dealers or pushers? The drug business is a nasty business but it is too profitable not to have many takers, willing and able to take the risks—young macho men who are not afraid to die.

If the death penalty were to pass in the District and all the killers were executed (because of our streamlined Supreme Court), it would just make more room for the up and coming drug lords to succeed where their less able fellows did not.

The death penalty is not a deterrent to people who put their lives on the line every day they go to work. Incarceration as an alternative is leading to a building boom in prisons. We will have very sizable numbers of the young men in jail if we keep it up. For many of them it's better than the streets and may be a leg up socially. If jail is not a deterrent but an improvement and the death penalty is not a deterrent but a challenge, we, as a nation, can not be winning then war on drugs.

The answer to the drug problem is to take the money out of the system. Maybe clever people in Congress, maybe the people who gave us the 4 trillion dollar debt can think of ways of getting the money out of the system that would make all law abiding citizens happy. That's what it needs. Drugs need to be understood as a social, economic, ecological system not simply as crime. Why should anyone lose an unalienable right because the Congress does not understand the drug culture? Why should we pay billions to stop drugs without stopping drugs? Why should 150,000,000,000 dollars, more than the combined profits of all the Fortune 500 companies go to the drug dealers? Why don't we wise up and get the money out of the drug business and the Congress out of the District of Columbia?

...Ted Sudia...

Editor's note: The Death penalty referendum for the District of Columbia failed, having been overwhelmingly disapproved by the electorate in the November election.

© Copyright 1992
Institute for domestic Tranquility