Monday Map: American Drug Trafficking Corridors

Despite our strict prohibition and overflowing prisons, the United States is the world's biggest consumer of illegal narcotics. All of those drugs somehow make it from the producer to the consumer, and today's map - from the DOJ's National Drug Intelligence Center - shows the most common routes traveled by drug traffickers to distribute marijuana, heroin, cocaine, meth and other drugs. Click here to see the map in more detail and click here for brand new analysis of high-density trafficking areas.

Americans spend more than $60 billion a year on illegal narcotics and another $20 billion trying to stop them. The map above is a simplified, abstract glance at drug routes, but it demonstrates the wide penetration of illegal drugs into our country and the hopelessness of efforts to prevent this flood. On a more granular level, these supply routes turn into a spider web that bring every type of drug into almost every town in the country.

Considering the sheer scale of drug supply operations in the U.S. leads us to some tricky questions, however. I often advocate on this blog for the legalization of marijuana, and - eventually - of all drugs. If we do that, what will the thousands of people in these intricate networks do for income? Will they resort to other, more dangerous, underground economies like human trafficking and guns? Will they reenter the mainstream economy? Will we create a new class of unemployed, untrained citizens?

I believe that if we legalized drugs, black markets and organized crime will not cease to exist, but they will be significantly weakened. Perhaps there will be increased fighting over control of the smaller businesses of trafficking humans, guns and black market drugs, but there's no reason to believe those markets would grow when drugs are legalized. In fact, we could use the vast savings and tax income from legalization to fund increased enforcement of gun and human trafficking laws.

Perhaps we would experience a spike in other types of black market activity as drug workers struggle to transition once the value of their product is wiped out. But I wouldn't expect a huge increase in violence. Violent criminals are already involved in violence. A change in laws won't spark new violence. This may be a questionable solution for the displaced drug workers, but maybe we could subsidize job transitions and training with the new income from drug taxes. The current generation of drug dealers and traffickers will adjust and age. Starting immediately, children in poor neighborhoods will no longer see drugs one of the few paths to wealth, we can hope that they will take different routes in their lives and pursue other opportunities.

And the money we'd save would be icing. The $20 billion we spend each year on the drug war - that's easy savings. Combine that with the revenue from taxing most of the $60 billion currently spent on drugs, and you've got a windfall big enough to make a serious investment in health care, energy, infrastructure or education.

Shutting down the supply channels in the map above would put quite a few drug traffickers out of work and reshuffle our underground economies. It's impossible to know how that would shake out, but the status quo isn't working, and it's time to look hard at the alternatives.