Opiates and the masses

Maria Sabina, the Oaxaca curandera unwisely let Gordon Wasson and Allan Richardson taste her magic mushrooms in 1955, which the pair then wrote about for Life Magazine.

Giving the secrets of the “little saints” to outsiders, her son was murdered and her house burned to the ground. During the later years of her life she lamented that “the power of the sacrament had been lost in the clouds,” and ending up speaking English instead of the Mazatec.

Legalizing drugs, as my well-appreciated commentator “Mr. Rushing” proposes, is an increasingly popular idea FROM and FOR the United States.  As Grits For Breakfast mentions:

A Zogby poll in the United States finds that “Three in four likely voters (76%) believe the U.S. war on drugs is failing, a sentiment that cuts across the political spectrum – including the vast majority of Democrats (86%), political independents (81%), and most Republicans (61%).”

“Grits” looks at justice and incarceration issues, and the criminal prosecution of drug users is beginning to be seen as counter-productive.  It has for some time here in Mexico (and our “addict population” is relatively small) and narcotics crimes are — in theory — “Crimes against Public Health”, but have been devastating to us in a different way.  “Bloggings by Boz,” which follows “mainstream media” and think-tank reports on Latin America wrote on October 2:

A poll in yesterday’s El Universal showed that Mexicans are very concerned about their security today, but may have some optimism for the future.

Only 25% think they are more secure after the governments crackdown against the cartels while 42% believe they are less secure.

It’s not the narcotics that are our problem, its narcotics wholesalers. While there is some wisdom in just “legalizing” the use of these substances, I don’t see it happening and all assume that the “little saints” are English-speaking.

It’s probably not coincidence that Adam Smith and Karl Marx both concocted their theories in England.  We heirs of English (and German via England) — unlike Maria Sabina — see narcotics only in an economic and utilitarian sense.  We teach the “little saints” to speak English — to be a commodity.  As such, legalizing them makes perfect sense in the United States.  But even here in Mexico, the sense of narcotics as “sacred” has been lost.  Their use (and trade) falls under “Crimes Against Public Health”, which certainly opens our “doors of perception” to dealing with what is still a minor problem (addiction) as a public health issue, rather than a criminal one.  That’s all for the good, but doesn’t look at what causes OUR drug problem.

The third little saint of economics also spoke English:  John Maynard Keynes.  While the Mexican gangsters have probably been making wiser investments, and have real goods and services to back up their investment cash, they are as dangerous for Mexico as the Wall Street investors have proven to be for — well — everybody.  That is, no one knows how much cash they’re sitting on, and even they don’t seem to know, and there is no control over how that cash is being spent.

There’s probably no real difference between Wall Street investors hiring “lobbyists” to suborn American politicians and keep regulations out of their business, and Mexican gangsters “buying” politicians (though it is more straight-forward and honest).  The cash pouring in to both Wall Street and the Cartels was not really creating jobs and more goods and services (unless you count lobbyists and bribe-givers and yachts and guns and hitmen) — at least not any productive, long-term development.

The tragedy of the “war on (some non-prescription) drugs” is this.  Mexicans are being killed in alarming numbers, we’re being asked to tolerate militarization and loss of our freedoms, for another country’s consumer habits.  It won’t be a big deal to “decriminalize” those narcotics, nor will it really resolve the problem.  And we can’t afford it anyway.  We need to invest in our oil resources, our agriculture, our manufacturing.  Unregulated cash, used to consolidate these resources in the hands of who knows (or frittered away on bribes and guns) will not make Mexico more secure.  Getting a handle on the gangster’s incomes — in other words — regulating the industry, and getting them to pay their taxes might.

The “little saints” are not going to relearn their Mazatec.  Perhaps the best we can hope for is to teach them proper English.