Sunday, January 30, 2005

Maria Full of Grace

I saw an amazingly powerful movie, Maria Full of Grace, this weekend. It is about how young girls are used as mules to bring drugs from Columbia to the US by swallowing them. There is a scene where the girl has to swallow about 60 packets of drugs. To make the acting appear real, the main actress actually swallowed packets of sugar without any previous experience to really show how difficult and scary it is. Sometimes the packets tear and the poor girls die. And the ruthless drug distributors simply cut up the girls to take out the packets from inside them. There are also times where they batch 4-5 mules on the same flight, knowing that one will get arrested. The idea is that the one arrest will create enough confusion that others can get through more easily.

I always believe that legalizing drugs would not increase its use, but simple get rid of all the crimes related to drugs around the world. Throughout history, some people have always consumed drugs. So why fight it? The same also goes for prostitution. Legalizing such acts in a controlled way would make the world a safer place. And more importantly, economic development in places like Columbia are far more effective that the 'drug war'. When farmers or factory works can make enough to have a decent life, they would not want to plant or deliver drugs.

Sadly, there is enough corruption in the systems to prevent fixing the problem at its root.

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