Authorities have announced the discovery of the first known instance of a drug-running submarine. The article makes hay about how this is such a game-changer, but I think it actually means we're slowly winning the war on drugs.

Drug runners are businessmen who deal in a high-risk, high-margin market. As long as their profit margin remains high, they can afford the stupendous risks involved in running an illegal trade. Submarines are not cheap, so their appearance means the various enforcement efforts undertaken by everyone involved have increased the cost of doing business enough to make such vehicles profitable.

The trouble is that drug runners have a very large but finite amount of money to spend. The United States, for now at any rate, literally has infinite money. Designing and operating a sub is incredibly expensive. Designing and operating a quiet sub is even harder, and the Navy has had sixty years experience hunting them. They are quite good at it.

It would be ironic if the greatest opportunity for legalization of most drugs came at the moment when drug enforcement reached the tipping point of its effectiveness, but stranger things have definitely happened before.