Famed American gangster Al Capone led a crime organization based on the illegal trafficking of alcohol during the Prohibition of the 1920’s and 30’s. He is widely regarded as the most recognizable symbol of the collapse of law and order under the ban on alcohol in the United States. Capone graduated from petty crime to acting as an ‘apprentice’ in gangster John Torrio’s bootlegging business. When Torrio was shot by a rival gang and decided to leave Chicago, Capone inherited the bootlegging business. He quickly expanded it, and soon controlled a variety of business ranging from nightclubs, brothels and race tracks to the largest cleaning and dyeing plant chain in Chicago. When it was necessary for Capone to deal with law enforcement, he did so through bribery, threats, and assassinations. After one disorderly conduct arrest in New York, Capone murdered two men. This testament to his willingness to kill prevented any witnesses from agreeing to testify against Capone, and the case was dismissed. He was never charged for the murders, again due to lack of compliant witnesses. Capone did attempt to gain approval from the general public through sporadic “good deeds”: he opened the first soup kitchens in New York during the Great Depression, provided daily milk rations to schoolchildren, and he often sent flowers to the funerals of people he killed or ordered killed. He occasionally went so far as to attend the funerals. Capone viewed himself as a pillar of the community.

Following a path strikingly similar to Capone’s, Columbian drug dealer Pablo Escobar came to power in the 1970’s after a short career in petty crime. He began dealing cocaine, and in 1975 gained notoriety for the murder of Fabio Restrepo, a more recognized drug dealer at the time. Escobar then took over Restrepo’s business. In 1976, he was arrested during a drug run, and after an attempt to bribe the judge failed, Escobar ordered the arresting officers murdered. The charged were dropped. Like Capone, Escobar established a pattern of dealing with the law through bribery, intimidation, and murder. At the height of his power, Escobar was identified as the seventh-richest man in the world by Forbes magazine. According to Escobar’s brother Roberto, who served as his accountant, Escobar’s cartel controlled an estimated 80 percent of the cocaine industry, and earned roughly $390 billion annually at the height of its productivity in the 1980’s. He owned real estate, banks, huge amounts of land, factories, fleets of ships, airplanes, and a crew of white collar criminals to launder his money. Like Capone, Escobar viewed himself as a “modern-day Robin Hood”, claims his brother Roberto. Pablo once drove past a garbage dump, saw people living in the impoverished conditions, and built 2500 houses for them, known as “Barrio Pablo Escobar”.

The fact that both Capone and Escobar viewed themselves as “Robin Hood”-type figures, benevolent outlaws, is directly related to the fact that they were both in control of industries that were glamorized as much as they were demonized. Prohibition gives the criminal all the control: he sets the standard, establishes the rules and reaps the rewards. A wealthy drug lord who makes a show of public generosity gains more respect from the common man than the police officer trying to shut the operation down, no matter how despicable the criminal may be. Capone and Escobar gained unimaginable wealth and power because of prohibition, not in spite of it. Without a ban on alcohol or drugs, they would never have had the opportunity to take control. Ending prohibition and beginning a system of regulation and taxation takes away the criminal’s power. He no longer makes the rules. As the regulation and taxation of alcohol ended bootlegging, so will the end of drug prohibition end the illegal drug trade. Today, drugs are illegal, they are out of control, and they are everywhere. If they were managed in the way that alcohol is now managed, they would be under control. Instead of criminals getting richer, violence escalating, and drug-related deaths on the rise, we would live under a system of established pricing, peaceful purchase, and a regulated labeling system that would clearly list important information such as purity and dosage. Would there still be cases of overdose and addiction? Yes. But those are problems now, and a system of regulation would only decrease those instances. Prohibition is a false sense of control for the government. As Capone was in control during the prohibition of alcohol and Escobar was in control of the illegal drug trade in his time, so are the dealers in control under prohibition today.