“Col. James Hiett, who was once in charge of the U.S. government’s drug war in Colombia, has pled guilty to helping his wife launder drug money and to failing to turn his wife in to the authorities. For her part, Laurie Hiett has pled guilty to drug conspiracy charges arising from her shipment of $700,000 in illegal drugs from Colombia to New York City. It’s safe to say that a war is becoming increasingly corrupt when the people at the top, who are charged with waging it, are making money off the product they are seeking to eradicate. Obviously, the exorbitant black-market profits were sufficiently attractive to lure Mrs. Hiett into the illegal-drug business, despite her husband’s high government position. If the war on drugs were ended, this type of corruption would evaporate, and if drugs were legal, prices and profits would plummet. With an end to the drug war, people would be left to either condone or condemn drugs in a peaceful, free society. For reasons of liberty as well as public policy, the decision to buy, sell, and use drugs should be a personal one. The government’s decades-long drug war is a manifest failure. The conviction of the Hietts, who left the courtroom holding hands after the colonel’s plea, is only the latest reflection of this. “
CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “The Drug War Corrupts Even Those on Top”
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