First they tried it with alcohol. They got Al Capone and the rise of organized crime in America.
Now they are trying it with marijuana, and Mexico has become a killing field.
Alcohol Prohibition
In 1920, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, known as the Volstead Act, banning the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol for consumption. Organized crime took control of alcohol distribution. Violent criminals like Al Capone and his rival Bugsy Malone gained wealth and power. At one time Al Capone controlled 10,000 speakeasy’s in America. Local and state governments and law enforcement were corrupted with money from illegal alcohol.
Before 1920, the Mafia limited its activity to gambling and theft. With prohibition, the Mafia organized bootlegging and the black market for alcohol flourished under the control of organized crime. Mafia families were able to expand in many different businesses, both illegal and legal.
Now one might think that alcohol consumption decreases under prohibition. The result was the exact opposite. Alcohol consumption in the U.S. increased thanks to prohibition. The moralists that demanded prohibition created more alcohol problems than before prohibition.
Then the U.S. government mandated that deadly poisons be added to industrial alcohol to render it unfit for consumption. This resulted in the deaths of thousands of people who unwittingly drank the denatured alcohol.
It took another Constitutional amendment, the 21st amendment, to finally repeal the Volstead Act 1933. Prohibition was a complete and utter failure. The organized crime problem it spawned would plague the United States for decades after it was repealed.
Call it the Law of Unintended Consequences. Pass a law banning alcohol and you get Al Capone, murder, mayhem and even more alcohol consumption than before.
Marijuana Prohibition
Now we witness the same unintended consequence with laws banning marijuana. Despite billion spent on drug enforcement, organized crime has taken over the distribution of marijuana in Mexico and the U.S. Once again, murderers and psychopathic criminals have grown wealthy and powerful as a result of prohibition. The state, local and federal police and military in Mexico have been corrupted by drug money.
The murder rate in Mexico, especially the border cities, is staggering. In 2008, there were 5,600 drug-related murders. In 2009, that numbers was surpassed in the first 9 months. [See Drug-related murders in Mexico surpass 2008 numbers]
Now the Mexican Mafia is diversifying into other lucrative areas like kidnapping, extortion and the protection racket. Once you have built a criminal organization you might as well put all those guns and soldiers to use. It looks like there is a complete breakdown of civil order and the rule of law in Mexico–the law of unintended consequences at work.
How many people will be murdered before the politicians finally realize that prohibition doesn’t work? The blood of those victims flows in the streets of Mexican cities and is on the hands of the prohibitionists in America.
