Of all the nonsensical, wrong-headed, asinine, and ignorant justifications for a massive wall along the southern border of the United States, the crackpot idea that a wall can stop the flow of illegal drugs is the most absurd.
Beyond the fact that the vast majority of drugs that enter the United States through the southern border come through ports of entry which presumably will remain open, here are a couple of other things to consider:
1. Drug trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar global industry with astonishing profit margins. Drug smugglers are not mom-and-pop criminals, trying to scratch out a meager living by running a kilo or two of marijuana across an undefended border. They are international conglomerates, with research and development departments, logistics departments, finance departments, and virtually unlimited resources. Thinking you will halt drug trafficking by building a wall is like thinking you will put General Motors out of business by closing a dealership on Main Street.
2. Economics tells us that if there is a demand for a product, someone will find a way to supply that product. Right now, the market for illegal drugs in the United States is the largest in the world, exceeding $100 billion annually. That’s $100 billion going to drug smuggling organizations every year. That will buy a lot of ladders.
3. Think they can’t afford countermeasures? According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, a kilogram of fentanyl that cost $2,600 can make more than 666,000 individual pills (with 1.5 mg of active ingredient) which can be sold for $15 each, generating $10 million in revenue.
4. They’ve already defeated the wall. Here are some of the ways drug cartels smuggle narcotics into the United States today:
- Privately-owned motor vehicles
- Tunnels
- Ships and boats
- Commercial aircraft
- Private airplanes
- Submersible watercraft
- Commercial vehicles
- Shipping containers
- Private courier services
5. The history of drug interdiction efforts – as well as the history of prohibition in the United States – makes clear that drug traffickers will adapt to any interdiction efforts that the government may attempt. As Theresa Cardinal Brown, Director of Immigration and Cross-Border Policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center explained, “The profit incentives to find ways over, under, around, or through any border infrastructure are high, and the cartels have more than enough money to spend on R&D.”
For more information, see:
https://reason.com/blog/2019/01/09/why-drug-traffickers-laugh-at-trump
https://www.usatoday.com/border-wall/story/drug-trafficking-smuggling-cartels-tunnels/559814001/
February 8, 2019