A colleague of mine was on a flight when balloon of drugs burst inside a drug mule. They died.
Our appetites fuel a cycle of violence and depravity.
I believe some Russian and North Korean gangs have figured out how to do this via extortion (cyber-crime), but the drug trade seems to be another popular way to do it.
Overall, it seems like the gangs are victim of the same cycle that poor people everywhere are a victim of: Being poor makes it harder to make better decisions to not be poor. In other latin american countries which were perhaps somewhat wealthier (while still poor by the standards of developed countries), the gangs were better able to accumulate capital which allowed them to improve their organization and eventually get into higher-margin activities that required that organization. In El Salvadore, the gangs were never able to "pick themselves up by their bootstrap" so to speak.
While new entrants to gangs in other latin american countries may also be poor, the ones who survive and avoid imprisonment long enough to move up in the ranks have the opportunity to accumulate a relatively considerable amount of wealth (with real compensation being very top-heavy, like any other organization), and the overall higher wealth of those gangs allows for better organization.
The profit/honor dichotomy being reflected on isn't unrelated to the other issues.. the gangs which have nothing to lose in terms of wealth have only their honor (which is perhaps a type of perceived or coerced power, even it is primarily over their also-poor neighbours). The theory presented by the author is that the gangs couldn't move towards the profit-focused side of the dichotomy, because they were too poor to have those opportunities in the first place.
The fact that they were extorting their poor neighbours is a reflection of the gangs themselves being poor and poorly organized, but the point I was making above is that being in extortion isn't intrinsically the cause of them being less wealthy, the cause was targeting other poor El Salvadorans due to disorganization, rather than extracting money from wealthier pockets (whether that be from drugs, or yes, also extortion)
Consequently, that's why many of us love our current benevolent dictator. Sure he's fucking harsh but he's effective.
Anyways, you're thinking more of Mexico. And if you think about it, that's probably why Bukele has been effective. Namely, cause the gangs are separate from the drug cartels even if they may have brushed elbows. The cartel seems more organized and more deeply rooted that I doubt they could be taken down by one man's decisions.
Nevertheless, I appreciate the sentiment.
It's the worst kind of resource curse.
Yet there are people who still idolize Pablo Escobar or think that becoming a drug lord is the only way to be wealthy - besides being a (corrupt) politician, that is. FARC leftovers think that way and that's why they won't stop doing crime.
The criminal organizations that came from Venezuela ("Tren de Aragua", "Los Satanás") aren't helping either.
Almost every human has an appetite for some sort of mind alteration, but all the harms you describe here are from fucked up legal situations that have been imposed on us to control the profit and political power that trade would shift.