DEA Chief Asa Hutchinson in Europe announced that the drug war was not a zero-sum game, but “clearly a win-win situation for both law enforcement and dealers.” According to Hutchinson, eradicating drug usage is not the point of the war on drugs. “Wherever you are dealing with desirable drugs, that is not the objective that we want to have.”

Hutchinson noted that without the drug war, law enforcement would have little to do, and the United States prison system would “dry up, putting thousands of guards out of work.”

“These undesirable outcomes occur whether we win the drug war or give up,” said Hutchinson. “We cannot do either.”

Hutchinson also said that “ending the drug war is undesirable for dealers as well as for law enforcement.” According to Hutchinson, without the drug war “profits would be way down.”

Hutchinson claims that the drug war is not a zero-sum scenario: both law enforcement and drug dealers can win, “unlike drug legalization, in which both law enforcement and dealers lose, and only taxpayers win.”

Hutchinson affirmed support for pushing up dealer profits, saying that “in the wake of September 11, we have no choice. There is a clear connection between drugs and terrorism.” Hutchinson said that the drug war must continue, because “as long as you have drug trafficking, there will always be a funding pool for terrorist activity.” Hutchinson said that other terrorist funding pools are unreliable, but “the drug war keeps the money flowing. Without the drug war, terrorist activity on the scale that we’ve seen recently would be nearly impossible.”

Hutchinson said that the continued ability of terrorists to evade arrest shows “that we have had success and that we will continue to have it” in using the drug war to fund terrorist activity. “Due solely to increased prohibition efforts by the new Afghan government, drug profits in Afghanistan have increased at least 30% since September,” he added. “That’s a win-win scenario by any definition. We win every day that the drug war continues, dealers win every day that the drug war continues, and terrorists win every day that the drug war continues. We cannot end the drug war without losing those vital benefits.”