Más Sobre Legalizar las Drogas

A propósito de las recientes declaraciones del Presidente Obama y de H. Clinton (visitando México) sobre el problema del narcotráfico y la necesidad de tomar acciones conjuntas entre ambos gobiernos, hoy he encontrado dos interesantes notas que regresan a la argumentación económica de la legalización de las dorgas.

La primera es de Jeffrey Miron, profesor de Harvard, en un comentario en CNNPolitics.com, Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence, en donde destaca
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Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead. Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after. Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it’s permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question. The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons. Prohibition of drugs corrupts politicians and law enforcement by putting police, prosecutors, judges and politicians in the position to threaten the profits of an illicit trade. This is why bribery, threats and kidnapping are common for prohibited industries but rare otherwise. Mexico’s recent history illustrates this dramatically.

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Y en el Blog Economix, en un post Stopping Border Violence by Legalizing Drugs de
Catherine Rampell , en donde hace referencia a la nota anterior, señala
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Plenty of economists, legal scholars, journalists and even drug law enforcement leaders have written about legalizing drugs, often pitching the idea as something like a “least bad” option. They argue that the black market is what makes the drug trade so profitable; enables drug cartels’ current business models; and pushes “business” disputes out of the courtroom and into the streets.

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Este tema lo había ya tratado en otro post ¿Legalizar Drogas?, en donde hay otras referencias.
Continuará siendo tema de debate