The government needed this money to fight this war over in Nicaragua. Russia had gave the Sandinistas a hundred million dollars to fight with. Congress had cut off all the money from the Contras. So now the Sandinistas had an advantage. Reagan and Bush felt that if Russia took over Nicaragua, they will be too close to America. They would be in our backyard. I believe they felt that it was more valuable to sacrifice a particular sector of America, and a race of people in America in order to save the whole country. In a sense, they sanctioned it cause they turned a blind eye. I also believe that had they not let these guys sell drugs, it's possible that I would have never become a drug dealer.