Ayshah's Journey Exposed

Just like the Le tunnel sous la Manche which connect England and France, my title translates in English… The 2nd Channel Tunnel Connecting Mexico and the United States.

Authorities have uncovered an unfinished tunnel under the border between the United States and Mexico. The tunnel, complete with an elevator, electricity and a ventilation system, extends from Tijuana, Mexico to Otay Mesa, Calif., in San Diego.

The tunnel was discovered by Mexican law enforcement working with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, which includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Border Patrol.

The tunnel would have been used primarily, if not exclusively, for moving drugs under the border, according to DEA agents. Thirteen people were arrested inside the tunnel last week and an investigation into others responsible for planning and building the illegal tunnel is ongoing.

Agents say that the approximately 900 feet long tunnel reaches a depth of up to 100 feet.  They estimate it has been under construction for roughly three years and was very close to completion and to access the tunnel, people would step into a bathroom with a thick concrete false floor connected to a hydraulic system that would lower them down approximately eight feet to the first ‘room’ of the tunnel.  The main shaft is about five-feet by four-feet and is solid rock. Agents discovered jackhammers and crude picks inside which were used to construct the tunnel. Electric cables and light bulbs run along one side of the tunnel, as well as pipes for water.  The intricate and detailed engineering has led agents to believe that the workers had prior experience in construction… wow, those agents are pretty smart!  It’s no wonder why we have not won the war on drugs.

I remember Nancy Reagan’s campaign, Just Say No many moons ago which seem to high-light the country’s challenges. This makes me ask why do we just combat the production and trafficking of drugs by go straight to the source? 

Why doesn’t the government spend what we would per year fighting drugs on buying out the industry or do as the Netherlands do and create a new drug policy which would be focused on preventing drug use and to treat and rehabilitate drug users, maybe reduce harm to users, possibly diminish public nuisance by drug users (the disturbance of public order and safety in the neighborhood) or most importantly put an end to trafficking of drugs all together.  That would be too easy.

Instead, through its Office of National Drug Control Policy, the federal government exceeds $50 billion in spending per year fighting drugs.  That’s roughly the same thing it spends on the Food Stamp program, which feeds poor Americans, and on our country’s entire General Sciences, Space, and Technology budget.  This is equal to the combined budgets for all of our country’s agriculture, energy, and veteran’s programs.

State and local governments contributed $15.9 billion to the fight against drugs in 1991, the last year for which the federal government tallied that figure.  At that time federal spending on drug eradication was half what it is today.

Of the $50 billion the federal government directly spends each year to control drug use, 61 percent goes for criminal justice and interdiction, while 30 percent goes for treatment and prevention programs.

The California Department of Corrections has an annual budget of $3.9 billion to deal with 161,000 inmates, 46,655 of whom are being incarcerated for drug offenses at a cost of about $1.1 billion each year.  Nationwide, federal government figures show there are more than 1.7 million people in prisons and jails, 22 to 33 percent of those for drug offenses.  At an average annual cost of about $20,000 per inmate, that adds nearly $7.8 billion to the drug war price tag.

A 2008 study by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron has estimated that legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a year into the U.S. economy — $44.1 billion from law enforcement savings, and at least $32.7 billion in tax revenue ($6.7 billion from marijuana, $22.5 billion from cocaine and heroin, remainder from other drugs).  Recent surveys help to confirm the consensus among economists to reform drug policy in the direction of decriminalization and legalization.  The country could really use these funds right now… hello… everyone is tired of the recession!!!

And then there are the soft costs of the drug war, which may be impossible to calculate.  How much have we paid in welfare and social service costs to families once supported by drug profits? How much have we paid in foreign aid to countries that fight drugs at our insistence? How much money have we removed from the underground economy, especially in drug-growing regions like Humbolt County, by destroying million of pounds of illegal product each year? How many police and court officers could we eliminate if there were no drug laws?

Such questions need to be taken into account during any serious debate over whether the drug war is worth its costs.

Chatatya lataa… Ayshah