Legislation Darkly
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006I saw ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ this past Friday. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend seeing Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Traffic‘ first. It will give you a much deeper appreciation of ‘Scanner’, and both are great films.
How entertaining you find ‘Scanner’ will depend, in part, on your knowledge of the thought processes of addicts. My boyfriend and I laughed through scenes some reviewers (including Richard Roeper) found boring.
None of this is to give you the impression that ‘Scanner’ is a comedy. It isn’t. Frankly, it just barely meets the definition of science fiction, but to explain that comment, I’d have to spoil the film for you. Come back to this blog and check out these links AFTER you’ve seen the movie:
“Tracking the covert history of CIA drug smuggling from Nicaragua to Arkansas and South Central Los Angeles, GNN sheds light on the darkest secret of the Agency’s operational directorate.”
The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) allows corporations to apply for exceptions that enable them to import, utilize and sell products containing illegal drugs. For example, the Stepan Company legally imports about 110 tons of coca leaves (from which cocaine is derived) per year, much of which is used to flavor Coca-Cola after being “decocanized”.
This strange mixture of enforcement, exceptions, corruption and manipulation exists in many other places, such as the fight against wildlife smuggling and prostitution.
The criminalization of any product or service can create more problems than it solves. When legal, an activity can be regulated and taxed. When illegal, the activity is forced underground, where prices rise in proportion to risk. Riskier enterprises become takeover targets for pre-existing criminal networks, who use violence to assert their authority.
Government, law enforcement agencies and even corporations face both an internal and external struggle, as they’re sabotaged from within by those who become corrupted. The harder and more expensive a product or service is to procure, the greater the value it has as an enticement. Inevitably, it will be used by everyone from covert operatives to lobbyists when they seek to persuade others.
The powerless are always the ones who suffer most. That doesn’t mean that everything should be legal. Clearly, there are things that cannot be tolerated by any society. It does mean, however, that criminalization should be the option of last resort.
