Washington claims the formidable military armada it’s assembled off Venezuela is aimed at taking action against drug dealers. But the U.S. rulers have no intention of stopping the drug trade, which attracts the traffickers, because it’s an exceptionally profitable business for a wing of the capitalist class in the U.S. And the damage these drugs do to millions of human beings is coldly calculated as a byproduct of doing business.
While occasionally there are highly publicized drug busts in the U.S. — almost always targeting lower-level operators — these rarely target the comfortable capitalist businessmen who rake in the big profits from spreading the poison. The only difference between them and others in the capitalist class is they reap superprofits, a normal bonus for those who take bigger risks.
The wide availability of drugs — from ones still illegal, like heroin, cocaine and fentanyl — or marijuana, which is sold today in corner stores all across New York City, is all part of a huge money-making industry.
And there is a tie between legal and “illegal” use of opiates. Hospitals dispense powerful painkillers with little help afterward to patients who get hooked on them. So all too often they have to turn to the street for illegal opiates, often laced with more dangerous and addictive ingredients. Since 1999 there have been 900,000 deaths from opioid overdoses in the U.S., with the numbers having accelerated over the past half decade.
In big cities and rural areas alike, the drug trade is wreaking havoc on working people.
Drug overdoses killed over 100,000 people for a third consecutive year in 2023, drawing some attention from the big-business media. But when there was a slight decrease the following year, coverage of the continuing carnage dropped from the papers. And the figures are on the rise again. U.S. overdose deaths remain higher than in any other country.
OxyContin: highly addictive
Purdue Pharma began producing the prescription painkiller OxyContin in 1996. Through a massive public relations campaign, company bosses hailed the drug’s benefits, while downplaying its addictive nature and the deadly risk of an overdose. They reaped billions in profits.
Facing chronic pain from on-the-job injuries and the cumulative effects of highly repetitive labor, many workers turned to opioids, legal or not, for relief. As they got hooked, the drug took over their lives.
Many found it harder and harder to fork over the hundreds of dollars a day for OxyContin, and switched over to much cheaper heroin, or the even more deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger.
“The Business of Drugs,” a Netflix documentary, highlights the testimony of the horrendous experiences those who became addicted went through.
Facing thousands of lawsuits over the effects of OxyContin, Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019. After six years in court, a bankruptcy judge ruled Nov. 14 that the company’s billionaire owners, the Sackler family, must pay out $7.4 billion. Most of this award, however, is going to state and local governments to develop so-called prevention programs, not to the victims of the profit-driven bosses.
The scourge of drug addiction, destroying the lives of millions, is a product of the workings of the capitalist system. The biggest problem isn’t the traffickers, it’s the substantial market in the U.S. that draws their attention.
Like everything else under capitalism, if something turns a profit, it’s good.
What’s needed is to forge a working-class movement led by class-conscious fighters whose character, reliability and trustworthiness make them capable of organizing millions to overthrow capitalist rule.
Malcolm X, one of greatest working-class leaders of the last century, urged workers to break from drugs, to learn their self-worth through struggle. After he broke from the Nation of Islam in 1964, forming the Organization of Afro-American Unity to become more politically active, he barred drug use in the organization.
The Socialist Workers Party says the use of drugs — illegal or not — is a threat to the workers’ movement. It is an obstacle to a way of life and activity that builds the loyalty and discipline needed to fight uncompromisingly for the interests of all working people.