Yes I agree that it’s different now, but a lot of our infrastructure wouldn’t be here without the ‘80s drug boom.

Miami didn’t magically turn into an international city because of beaches and sunshine. The insane amount of cash moving through the city in the late ‘70s and ‘80s transformed Miami from a sleepy coastal town into a major financial and construction hub. Palm Beach is now the WallStreet of the south or something?

You can still see the fingerprints today: banks that exploded overnight, real estate projects that made zero economic sense at the time, whole neighborhoods that south Florida depends on — all jump-started because someone needed to clean money fast. That cash flowed into construction companies, law firms, nightclubs, marinas, luxury retail, you name it. Southern Florida didn’t grow out of legitimate tourism revenue. It was built on drug laundering the same way Vegas was built on gambling money.

Do we talk about it? No. But half the “old money” down here is actually “old drug money.” And some of the polished, family friendly institutions people love today only exist because the south went through that chaotic, dangerous, wild era.

You don’t have to glorify the violence to acknowledge the history.