Jamaica Says it Can Win Its Drug War for $1 Billion
It's a strategy so ingenious, I can't believe no one thought of it before:
Someone should tell the Jamaicans that the U.S. has already tried the whole spend-a-billion-dollars-to-eradicate-drugs idea so many times that it's become a rather unfunny joke, and the only way the drug czar can even get the money anymore is if he pretends it's for something else, like treatment programs.
The last thing Jamaica needs is to owe a billion dollars back to a bunch of international banks for massive drug war that didn't work. Good luck accomplishing anything except an endless series of bloody gunfights that cripple your tourism industry.
If you want a reduction in drug war violence, begin by regulating and taxing the marijuana that's being sold by the handful all over the country. The thing I keep hearing about Jamaican herb is that no one can even finish the $20 bag they bought at the airport when they arrived. You could tax it at 300% and the tourists wouldn’t even notice. Now that's a billion dollar drug strategy.
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Jamaica is seeking $1 billion in loans and grants to rid the country of “cancerous†drug gangs that have taken over poor neighborhoods on the Caribbean island and hurt economic growth, Finance Minister Audley Shaw said.
Someone should tell the Jamaicans that the U.S. has already tried the whole spend-a-billion-dollars-to-eradicate-drugs idea so many times that it's become a rather unfunny joke, and the only way the drug czar can even get the money anymore is if he pretends it's for something else, like treatment programs.
The last thing Jamaica needs is to owe a billion dollars back to a bunch of international banks for massive drug war that didn't work. Good luck accomplishing anything except an endless series of bloody gunfights that cripple your tourism industry.
If you want a reduction in drug war violence, begin by regulating and taxing the marijuana that's being sold by the handful all over the country. The thing I keep hearing about Jamaican herb is that no one can even finish the $20 bag they bought at the airport when they arrived. You could tax it at 300% and the tourists wouldn’t even notice. Now that's a billion dollar drug strategy.
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