I don’t ever seeing it happen. The flow of drugs could be dramatically reduced, but never stamped out completely. The only way I can imagine a dramatic reduction happening is with a combination of the rebirth of Centac or an organization that does the same thing (Read The Underground Empire, by James Mills), and something like Nixon’s stance with Turkey’s heroin-production in the 70’s.
Centac was a government organization that had a highly successful track record with not taking out the low-level pushers, but the entire organization. Out of the 13 cases Centac took, they only lost 1, and that was because the informant vanished after playing both ends against the middle (It’s possible that the informant, Robert Yang, went down in a hail of M-16 bullets, but I would think they would have found out about that unless the Asians did something with the body).
Centac’s approach worked beautifully. It didn’t require all the excessive man-power the war on drugs has now. When Reagan was elected, he messed everything up. While Centac would only have 5 big cases going at once, the new FBI-controlled group had 400-something, and none of them were very notable.
Another enemy of the war on drugs is diplomacy. Look at what Nixon did with Turkey in the 70’s. He leaned on them to knock off the heroin production, of else, and they did. If we did that to other countries, with the threat of cutting off their foreign aid, I’m sure some would comply.
Another step that could be taken (I’m sure the potheads of the board will love this one) is legalisation of the less hard drugs, like pot. I think it’s well-established that smoking pot isn’t going to ruin your life nearly as much as say, cocaine or heroin. The fact that the softer drugs would be legal would, I’m sure, cause a few people to stop doing them, since some people seem to think they’re badasses just for smoking a joint.
I think with the legalisation of the less dangerous stuff, with a relentless crusade by a Centac-like organization and with a President who has the balls to lean on “problem countries,” drug production would plummet. Just look at how effective Reagan’s approach was. Cocaine prices fell all throughout the 80’s, because the Medellin and Cali cartels were smuggling larger and larger loads into the U.S. Before the 80’s, a couple of kilos was considered a big deal. By the early 80’s, 300-500 kilo deals were common. Cocaine didn’t go out of style because of anything the government did. It went out of style because famous people died of overdoses.
Now, let’s see what kind of monster I’ve created this time…
