Trump Tackles Drug Cartels
By Walter Block
October 23, 2025
SUBSCRIBE TO SAVVY STREET (It's Free)
Feature Image Credit: TheWanderingTraders
Donald Trump is a busy boy. His latest? He is now taking on the drug cartels located everywhere south of the Rio Grande River, but mainly in Mexico.
His latest? He is now taking on the drug cartels.
The usual suspects, as usual, are in a tizzy about this initiative of his. According to Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal, “Cleanup requires support from a public that will bristle at the idea of a gringo ‘invasion.’ Nurturing ties with Mexico by focusing on shared interests is a better way . . .”
Yeah, sure. That would be just like “nurturing ties” with the inept Washington, DC, police department.
According to the New York Times: “The president has ordered the Pentagon to use the armed forces to carry out what in the past was considered law enforcement.”
But from this springs this gigantic difference between two somewhat similar ways of protecting the general public. As even these Timesmen concede, this gap has been erased several times in the past, including Panama, and now regarding our nation’s capital.
There is indeed a “better way” to eliminate these drug cartels.
There is indeed a “better way” to eliminate these drug cartels. It is called, simply, legalization of all such addictive products. Before you dismiss this suggestion as the ravings of a madman, take a little trip with me down memory lane.
Once upon a time, long, long ago (1920–1933) there was a legal prohibition of the production, distribution and use of all alcohol drinks: beer, wine, liquor, demon rum. Why? These products, taken in inappropriate quantities could actually kill you. In lesser amounts they were still very dangerous. They caused motor vehicle accidents, drunkenness, marital strife, barroom fights, etc. As a result we had bathtub gin, gangs shooting each other for turf, and sometimes hitting innocent passersby. A fair assessment of this episode was that there was one and only one good thing that came out of this sorry episode: a bunch of really great movies, such as Godfather I, II and III. For some reason, known not to me, the main criminals during this epoch were of Italian extraction.
How did this story end: now you go to the grocery and pick up booze. No poisonous products, no shootings, no nothing. If you have difficulties with these items, you go to Alcoholics Anonymous, or some other such beneficial organization. Yes, some people can’t handle their scotch, but this occurs whether it is legal or not.
More recently marijuana was prohibited by an interventionist government. This occurred in 1937, federally, although several states had enacted such legislation at various years before that. In other words, at least at the federal level, this substance was legal ever since the beginning of our nation, in 1776. Somehow our country survived this menace. What then happened? Presumably, at about that time the discovery was made that the devil weed was evil; beyond redemption. You’ll never guess what then ensued. Yes, impure products, gangsters murdering each other over drug turf, innocents caught in the crossfire, etc., the same old story. For some reason beyond my ken, black people were disproportionately overrepresented in these endeavors.
How did this chapter in our sordid history conclude? First, the former demon weed was approved for medicinal purposes, then came full legalization. Nowadays, you go to the pot store, no such difficulties arise anymore. Also, there is Narcotics Anonymous.
Now for the present situation. Fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and other such drugs are illegal, and yes, the same refrain occurs: impure poisonous products, shootings, the whole shebang. This time, the main participants appear to be of Hispanic extraction. Who says that this issue is not one of equal opportunity?
Donald is going about the eradication of drug gangs in entirely the wrong way. Want to get rid of these evil cartels? Legalize the product they sell. Then, it will be available, probably, in pharmacies, or vaping emporiums. The “magic of the market” in Ronald Reagan’s helpful phraseology, will ensure that the drug gangs will disappear just as they have regarding alcohol and marijuana.
These cartels are malevolent alright, when they engage in murder, rape, kidnapping, etc. But not when they engage in capitalist acts between consenting adults, to use the felicitous phrase of Robert Nozick’s. This is a victimless “crime.”
This is a victimless “crime.”
The objections to this modest proposal will come thick and fast. “But these drugs are more dangerous than those others.” Well, rat poison is still legal, and it is even worse. The greater hazard is an argument for legalization, not against it. Does society want to control these substances, or leave them to the tender mercies of the criminals infesting Sinola?
“What about children? Of course, youngsters will be treated, under legalization, exactly in the same manner as these other substances. Prohibition for them! Paternalism is justified for youngsters, but not adults.
Then there is the argument that these gangsters will then move on to focus more on murder incorporated, kidnapping, ransom, etc. No, I do not advocate legalizing those non-victimless crimes. But the fact that they now engage, to a great degree, in the drug trade, demonstrates that they have a comparative advantage in that industry, not in any of these others. Thus, legalization will weaken them.
That is nothing to be ashamed of. With one stroke of the pen, our legislators can seriously wound these terrorists. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Pegs:
Mary Anastasia O’Grady, Wall Street Journal, 8/18/25, p. A25
When was marijuana first prohibited by law in the US? 1937
NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/trump-military-drug-cartels.html
-
China’s Rare Earth “Monopoly”—and Why Markets Will Break It
-
Australia Needs a Fairness Doctrine—Who Will Propose It?
-
Audio State of Play Trump Presidency as at 2 Feb 2026
-
The Economic Solution to Kidney Shortages
-
High-Stakes Gamble: Is College Still Worth It?
-
Analyzing the Trump Presidency: State of Play, February 2, 2026
-
Will the AI Tsunami Ever Control Us?
-
US Panel Discussion State of Play
-
Mathematics and Ethics: A Discussion with Professor Franklin
-
Transcript: Podcast with Professor of Mathematics James Franklin