Drugs—Is There Any Hope?
WHY have all efforts to stem the illicit drug tide failed? To put it in one word: MONEY. Drugs are big business. Profits are measured in the billions of dollars.
The total annual revenue from narcotics sales in the United States alone is estimated to be between $60 billion and $120 billion. With about $20 billion for expenses, it leaves a net profit of from $40 billion to $100 billion. “The drug trade, with a volume of $300 billion a year, is the world’s biggest business,” says World Press Review.
With so much money at their disposal, drug merchants have exploited man’s inherent greed and selfishness and have attained the power to do virtually whatever they want. “They don’t count their money anymore—they weigh it,” said one police lieutenant. “They can buy off witnesses; they can buy off anybody they want to.” One drug dealer in Bolivia is reported to have offered to pay off the country’s entire debt of $3.8 billion if the authorities would refrain from trying to enforce the narcotics laws.
The cocaine and marijuana kingpins of the Western Hemisphere have even exceeded the influence of the more established opium lords of Asia. “Greasing palms and, when necessary, using the gun, the drug barons have spawned corruption from Bolivia to the Bahamas, and in more than one country are threatening to supplant elected government as the reigning power,” reports Time magazine. “We are up against an organization that is stronger than the state,” says former Colombian president Belisario Betancur.
He should know. In Colombia, members of the Medellín cartel, the drug lords who dominate the cocaine business, have waged a violent campaign against all who have opposed or sought to prosecute them. Included among those killed have been a justice minister, 21 judges, a newspaper editor, over a dozen journalists, and scores of soldiers and policemen. “Never before has a criminal enterprise managed to so intimidate a major nation,” notes Newsweek. “Colombian judges fear to judge; policemen fear to arrest. Critical journalists now often write their columns from abroad, where they have plenty of company from other Colombians who have fled for their lives.”
War on Drug Supply Lost
Because of the money factor, the war to cut off drug supplies has failed on all levels. Farmers continue to grow coca, marijuana, and opium poppies, which pay several times more than the subsistence wage they may earn with conventional crops. To them the drug lords are benefactors who bolster the economy. Many police and customs officers continue to look the other way when drugs are being smuggled and earn up to $50,000 or more each time just for doing so.
Dealers also initiate children as young in age as nine or ten into the lucrative drug scene: earning 25 cents for each empty crack vial they collect off the streets, $100 a day for serving as a lookout to warn of police, $300 a day as a runner transporting drugs, and up to $3,000 a day as a teenage dealer. By flaunting their wealth before their schoolmates in their purchases of furs, heavy gold chains, and expensive cars, they entice still others.
Terrorists have found in drugs the means to finance their operations. They, in turn, give assistance to the drug traffickers. Some political leaders use the drug trade both to enrich themselves and to undermine enemy governments. Arrests or convictions do not deter them. The profits to be made are so immense that as soon as one dealer or corrupt official is struck down, two more stand up to take his place.
“Drug production and trafficking unfortunately remain big business, and drug abuse levels all over the world continue to rise,” says a U.S. State Department report made public in March. “Corruption of government officials and law enforcement officers, bribery, trafficker intimidation and violence, and the stark fact that nations are outmanned, outgunned and outspent by narcotics traffickers, continue to undermine global efforts to stop narcotics production and trafficking.” Where, then, is there hope?
Is Reducing Demand the Answer?
Some feel it lies in reducing the demand side of the drug trade. Like other businesses, the international drug trade works on both supply and demand. Without the present seemingly insatiable demand for drugs, the drug flow would dry up. Yet, despite warnings, increased education, drug testing, and pleas to ‘say no to drugs,’ drug use continues unabated. Even worse, it is spreading.
“Other countries around the world are just getting hooked,” notes a Time report. “America’s drug culture has been exported to European and Asian youth. Although statistics are hard to come by, drug use seems to be expanding worldwide, especially in the countries that export drugs to the U.S.” Bolivia, for one, has seen a recent upsurge in drug addiction. While coca is legally grown there for leaf chewing and tea, increasing numbers of youths are becoming addicted to a poisonous, smokable form of cocaine called basuco. And Vietnam reports a dramatic rise in opium and heroin addiction among young people in both the south and the north. All told, there are reported to be some 40 million users of illegal drugs worldwide.
It is now conceded that the drug problem is beyond the ability of any one nation to control. Will all the nations, then, band together and curb the present scourge? Such complete cooperation is most unlikely, considering the greed and profit motives that run so high in the illicit drug trade—not to mention the irreconcilable political differences. Some nations refrain from invoking meaningful sanctions against political allies even though they are centers of the drug trade. Besides, millions of people depend on drug crops for their livelihood. “There are countries that would simply collapse if the drug business were to disappear overnight,” says World Press Review.
Where Hope Lies
At most, authorities hope for a reduction in drug abuse and, in time, a gradual lessening of the current drug craze. However, total eradication of the drug problem is a valid hope. It is found in the Bible’s promise: “They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.” (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14) ‘No harm or ruin’ includes all the hurtful problems that stem from drug abuse.
But note the reason why: The earth is to be “filled with the knowledge of Jehovah.” Strong motivation is essential in steering away from drug abuse. Love of Jehovah God and a desire to please him, based on accurate knowledge of him and his ways, have helped many to break free from the influence of drugs. Take the example of Angelo.
Now 60, Angelo had a long history as a drug abuser, back to 1964. Introduced to the drug scene by friends who seemed to be having a great time, Angelo started with marijuana and progressed through cocaine, hashish, morphine, and “five-star acid” (LSD), to name a few. “I was constantly getting high,” says Angelo. “Every day I got high. I felt I could run the world. My head was in orbit. At that time the astronauts were going to the moon, and I wanted to go beyond.”
But the drugs also produced hallucinations, moodiness, withdrawal from society, and a desire to commit suicide. “In March of ’79, I got to reading the Bible,” says Angelo. “I had been having hallucinations and wanted to commit suicide. But I thought I would first find out where I would be going when I died. Some Witnesses came to my door, and I insisted they explain the Bible to me. From a study of the Bible, I realized that taking drugs is against God’s law—that our bodies belong to God, and as 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, we are to keep them from ‘defilement.’”
How did he break free from drugs? “Praying, sincerely praying,” says Angelo, “along with studying the Bible daily. You’ve got to have a strong determination to give up drugs. It’s not easy by any means. But I felt Jehovah knew my heart, and as Proverbs 3:5, 6 implies, I could lean on him. I feel personally that it took Jehovah to set me straight, knowing the craving that I had.”
Like Angelo, many others have realized that with strong motivation, faith in God, and reliance on his help, along with the support of concerned, loving associates, the deadly drug habit can be broken. But how “will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard?” the Bible asks at Romans 10:14. The publishers of this magazine will be happy to help you gain that “accurate knowledge” of God and the sure hope of finding everlasting life in a drug-free new world.—Ephesians 1:17; Romans 15:4.
[Blurb on page 11]
“The drug trade, with a volume of $300 billion a year, is the world’s biggest business”
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Strong motivation is essential in breaking free from drug abuse