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US govt drug issues



> One and all, after reading an excellent article by bertil litner, on the
> net came the following on US govt policy and the international drug
> trade, money laundering, ang geopolitical aspects
> where Burma is of important concern. The US govt was painfully slow in dealing
> with the boycott issues, waves of repression, and finally checked by Congressional
> and White House sanctions. The Burmese drug trade is growing at alarming
> rates. The issues are complex. The heroin drug traffic is now a prime
> target of US policy. It remains for us to monitor it, and report what is
> going for the best of all of us in the struggle for liberty and
> democracy in Burma.
> 
> metta,
> dawn star
> euro-burmanet -paris
> http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/drugs/
> 
> Michael Gurstein wrote:
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Fri, 8 Aug 1997 21:30:38 -0400
> > From: FLW <flw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Reply-To: Conspiracy Theory Research List <CTRL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: CTRL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: FWD: DRCNet, issue #6 Reality of " War on Drugs"
> >
> > I am forwarding this piece cut from DRCNet, issue #6, some interesting
> > information on the background and motives of the "war on drugs".
> > FLW
> >
> > ===========
> >
> > 8.  EDITORIAL:
> >
> > Does the US Government really want to "Win" the War on
> > Drugs?
> >
> > A report out of Reuter's News Service this week highlights a
> > special report in Latin Trade Magazine regarding the
> > enormous sums of drug money being laundered in Mexico.
> > According to Latin Trade, an estimated $15 Billion in drug
> > profits, equal to 5% of Mexico's GDP, is flowing through
> > Mexican banks and into real estate, the Mexican stock and
> > bond markets, and other legitimate sectors.  The report
> > concludes that if this money were to stop flowing, the
> > Mexican economy would be "seriously destabilized."  This
> > does not even address the additional concern of the
> > concentration of Mexican assets in the hands of criminals.
> > (And Mexico is far from the only country with this problem.)
> >
> > The current  (August 21) issue of Rolling Stone Magazine
> > details the extraordinary volume and complexity of money
> > laundering worldwide, as the largest and most profitable
> > criminal organizations in the history of the world
> > reintegrate their wealth into the stream of legitimate
> > business.  This has resulted in a thriving black market in
> > American currency in source countries such as Colombia,
> > where otherwise legitimate businessmen can buy American
> > currency from drug traffickers at a 17% discount.
> >
> > The New York Times has reported that American companies
> > including General Electric, Microsoft, Apple Computer and
> > General Motors have sold goods to fronts for the "Cali
> > Cartel."  The illegal money flowing into Colombia is such
> > that it has turned a $5 billion per year US trade deficit
> > into a $5 billion trade surplus as American products are
> > bought for newly laundered funds.  The US government also
> > gets a stream of revenue from whatever illicit funds it can
> > lay claim to, whether seized outright or bargained-for in
> > return for lighter sentences for captured drug kingpins.
> >
> > In response to the enormous scope of money laundering in the
> > US, the Treasury Department's hope is to reduce notification
> > requirements (the threshold at which a financial transaction
> > must be reported to the IRS) from $10,000 all the way down
> > to $750.  This would give the government unprecedented
> > knowledge of and control over the financial activities of
> > its citizens, yet another level of public surveillance
> > justified by the exigencies of the Drug War.
> >
> > Perhaps the booty from the illicit drug trade, much of which
> > comes from the pockets of the poor and middle class, is not
> > necessarily a "problem" for the US government after all.  It
> > props up a Mexican economy (which we only recently bailed
> > out to the tune of $50 billion) the stability of which is
> > important to US security (and securities).  It pads the
> > accounts of legitimate US businesses in the form of exports,
> > both to front organizations and to legitimate source-country
> > businesses operating with discounted currency.  It gives
> > Uncle Sam an excuse to watch its citizens more closely.  And
> > it is being reabsorbed by the US government both through
> > seizures and by taxes on US corporations.
> >
> > Just how big is the global trade in illegal drugs?  The U.N.
> > Commission on Narcotic Drugs estimates that the total is
> > about $500 billion.  That's about the same size as the
> > international telecommunications trade, larger than the
> > international petroleum trade, and larger than the Gross
> > Domestic Products of nearly every nation on earth.
> >
> > Incredibly, the U.N. estimate does not include the enormous
> > "legitimate" business of Drug War Inc.  (prisons, law
> > enforcement, defense, military hardware, drug testing,
> > forced treatment, etc., etc., etc.)
> >
> > It is worth noting that the price of drugs, and thus the
> > relative size of the illegal market, is wildly inflated by
> > Prohibition.  Any system which removed the black market
> > premium from the price of drugs would immediately see the
> > economic size of the trade reduced by orders of magnitude.
> > What remained would be significant, to be sure, but
> > certainly not a primary cog in the functioning of the world
> > economy.  (According to an editorial in the 7/26 issue of
> > The Economist, legalizing certain drugs would slash,
> > overnight, profits that account for "perhaps three-quarters
> > of all the laundered money.")   The longer it takes to reign
> > this in -- and that will not be done by building more
> > prisons in the US, nor by sending more weapons to Latin
> > America -- the more dependent the world economy will become
> > on a policy which thrives on massive incarceration, the
> > unrestrained seizure of citizens' assets, and the
> > destruction of millions of lives.
> >
> > The Drug War then, is a game of money and power and control,
> > sold to Americans as if it were about drugs and children and
> > health.  Given the mythical opportunity to "win" the drug
> > war, that is, to make drugs disappear forever, the US
> > government would most likely have to turn it down.  There is
> > too much being gained in this never-ending game of cat and
> > mouse.  But you will never hear General McCaffrey tell you
> > that, nor President Clinton, nor Jesse Helms nor Newt
> > Gingrich.  Because for them, 'tis the game that's the thing.
> > And in this game, where the government wins by merely
> > playing, they don't want to have to tell us that the stakes
> > are ours, and that we can only lose.
> >
> > Adam J. Smith
> > Associate Director, DRCNet
> >
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