Ingenious drug smugglers build submarine.

Impressive. Just goes to show how creativity and innovation flourish in the face of adversity. If only we could figure out a way to get the drug barons to innovate in useful fields. I think I have a plan…

This page claims global drug trade is worth up to $400bn annually. There are certainly drug barons out there with hundreds of billions between them stashed in Swiss bank accounts. I propose the following 3-step plan for putting drug money to good use:

1. The UN creates a special certificate called the Holy World Certificate of Free Drug Trade. There is only one, and it allows the holder to legally sell drugs wherever and to whomever he likes.
2. Once this mighty document has been created, NASA should stick it in a heatproof pod and blast it into space hard enough that it goes all the way to Mars and lands neatly at a random location.
3. The task is then simple: fetch! Countries are disqualified; only a private citizen or corporation is allowed to go and get it, and must get it by hand.

The result? All those stashed billions get put to good use developing the technology to put the first humans on Mars.