Read F Paul Wilson - Novel 04 for Free Online Page A

There’s so damn much money in
drugs that the cartels have been able to corrupt entire police forces, buy
entire town governments… towns with airports. It’s mind boggling
and stomach turning. And the worst of it is, they can make those kinds of
profits for one reason and one reason alone: We’ve declared their
commodity illegal. If we legalized it, we could even start taxing the profits
on the legal sale of those same drugs. I see a net gain of seventy or eighty
billion dollars.”
    “All of it dirty
money,” John said.
    “No dirtier than taxes we
take from tobacco and alcohol. It’s money we can put toward educating
people to stay away from drugs, and rehabbing those who are already
hooked.”
    “Come on, Tom. Do you really
want to collect taxes on crack? I mean, don’t we have enough crack heads
and crack babies already?”
    “Crack wouldn’t even
exist if cocaine were legal. It’s just like the hundred-ninety-proof
industrial-grade alcohol of the Roaring Twenties. People bought it to spike
their drinks. It had a huge market—which disappeared overnight when
Scotch, beer, and wine became legal again. The same will happen to crack when
you can buy cocaine powder, cocaine drinks—where do you think the
‘Coca’ in Coca-Cola came from?—even cocaine chewing gum.”
    “Cocaine chewing
gum—Christ!”
    “So I’ll give in on
crack. But what I—” The phone rang. Tom picked it up, listened for
a few seconds, said, “Thanks,” then hung up. He started for the
door, motioning John after him. “In here.” He followed Tom into the
presidential living quarters where a giant rear projection TV was already on.
John had been here two or three times for drinks and dinner.
    Tom grabbed the remote and switched
to Today. An elderly, balding man with thick, horn-rimmed glasses was speaking
to the camera. The screen tag read MILTON FRIEDMAN.
    “Friedman?” John said. “The
economist? Wasn’t he—?” The screen answered his question by
adding FORMER ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT REAGAN.
    Bryant Gumbel asked him what sort
of America he
envisioned after the decriminalization of drugs, and the professor said he saw
an America with
half the number of prisons, half the number of prisoners, ten thousand fewer
homicides a year, inner cities in which there was a chance for poor people to
live without being afraid for their lives…
    Professor Friedman fielded several
more questions, each answer stressing the propriety—for economic as well
as philosophical reasons—of legalizing drugs.
    As the station cut to a commercial,
Tom hit the mute and turned to him.
    “That’s why I’m
going to win. My staff has been talking to the mass media for weeks. The networks,
the major magazines, and newspaper chains are ready to support me on this.”
    “They sure didn’t sound
that way as I was driving down here.”
    “Oh? You’ll notice that
they all carried my address in toto. They’ll start off with subtle
support. Like Milton Friedman there. He’s opposed antidrug laws from the
gitgo. When he was with Reagan, he pushed for it. But the millions who saw him
just now don’t know that. They heard him say drugs should be legalized
and they saw ‘Former Advisor to President Reagan.” He mimicked a
viewer: “ ’Reagan? Really? Hmmm… ‘ Believe me, none of
that was accidental. You’ll see a lot of Friedman in the coming months.
William F. Buckley will be out there too. And—”
    “Buckley?” John
couldn’t believe it. “You and William F . Buckley on the same side?”
    “He’s favored
decriminalization for years, and hasn’t been shy about saying so.
We’ll have senior judges from all over the country who are refusing to
hear drug cases because they think the laws are unfair…”
    “If you think that’s
going to make any difference…”
    “Every night, every day,
every random act of violence, every drive-by shooting, every overdose, every
single crime that can be blamed on the huge, unconscionable profits