Stop Terrorism Legalize Drugs

by James W. Harris

–The Drug War, in practice, is a massive government subsidy to terrorists.

The U.S. government is busily investigating numerous ways to cut off the funds of terrorist organizations around the world.

Here’s one method guaranteed to immediately gut the biggest single source for terrorist dollars end America’s War on Drugs.

The Drug War has created a massive illegal drug market that terrorist organizations — including bin Laden’s organization — have long used to fund their horrific activities. As Interpol’s chief drugs officer, Iqbal Hussain Rizvi, noted in 1994 “Drugs have taken over as the chief means of financing terrorism.”

Drug money helped fund the September 11 terrorist attacks. It has long been known that bin Laden was taking advantage of the opportunities created by the Drug War to fund his activities. CBS News observed on May 31, 2000 “For the first time, there is…evidence that Afghanistan’s heroin producing poppy fields are funding bin Laden’s organization, Al-Qaeda, as well as the Taliban.”

Similarly, a few days after the September 11 attacks, House Speaker Dennis Hastert

 said “The illegal drug trade is the financial engine that fuels many terrorist organizations around the world, including Osama bin Laden.”

Indeed, an estimated 75% of the world’s heroin is currently produced in Afghanistan, according to the Wall Street Journal (October 2, 2001).

Remember, it is not drugs per se, but rather drug *prohibition* that makes it possible for terrorists to earn millions of dollars from producing and selling drugs — just as alcohol Prohibition made thugs like Al Capone rich in the 1920s.

The Drug War, in practice, is a massive government subsidy to terrorists. End it, and we will end the chief source of terrorism funding around the world — as well as curing a whole host of other prohibition-related evils.