What politicians in the US won't tell you about the war on drugs/Financial Times Editorial: Mexico’s drugs war

What politicians in the US won't tell you about the war on drugs
By Carlos T Mock, MD
Chicago, IL
April 4, 2009

The unfortunate truth Americans can't deal with is despite tough anti-drug laws, a 2008 survey by The World Health Organization (WHO) shows the U.S. has the highest level of illegal drug use in the world.

The survey of legal and illegal drug use in 17 countries, including the Netherlands and other countries with less stringent drug laws, shows Americans report the highest level of cocaine and marijuana use.

For example, Americans were four times more likely to report using cocaine in their lifetime than the next closest country, New Zealand (16% vs. 4%),

Marijuana use was more widely reported worldwide, and the U.S. also had the highest rate of use at 42.4% compared with 41.9% of New Zealanders.

In contrast, in the Netherlands, which has more liberal drug policies than the U.S., only 1.9% of people reported cocaine use and 19.8% reported marijuana use.

"The use of drugs seems to be a feature of more affluent countries. The U.S., which has been driving much of the world's drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies, as well as (in many U.S. states), a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries," write the researchers.

Drug users in this country show a stubborn indifference to whether their preferred vice comes from Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay or Pluto, as long as it comes from somewhere. It always does.

Unfortunately, the drug cartels control much of Congress. Hiding behind “ulterior motives,” protecting our youth from drug exposure, they have bought most politicians. I personally think that because so much money is at stake, the cartels would “eliminate” any opposition to strict drug rules. It’s the only way they can stay in business. The minute the government legalizes drug use, they are out of business.

It is time that the American politicians accept the truth: drug addiction is a disease, not a crime. Legalizing and treating addicts is the only way to stop the flow of drugs. Not to mention the savings achieved from the war on drugs plus the revenue on the taxation of such substances.

With our national debt at 10% of GDP--and growing--it may be time for the US government to rethink its drug policies.

Carlos Mock, MD has published three books and is the Floricanto Press editor for its GLBT series. He was inducted in the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame in October of 2007. He grew up middle-class in the suburbs of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His website is: www.carlostmock.com



Financial Times Editorial: Mexico’s drugs war
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 3 2009 19:49 | Last updated: April 3 2009 19:49
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/671d04e4-207e-11de-b930-00144feabdc0.html


When the Pentagon suggested in a strategy document last year that the US should be alert to the possibility of a “rapid and sudden collapse” of Mexico as a state, it caused diplomatic heartburn.

While admitting state failure in Mexico was less likely than, say, the collapse of Pakistan, the US Joint Forces Command said Mexico’s government, politicians and judicial infrastructure were under sustained assault from drugs cartels that could trigger a descent into chaos, demanding “an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone”.

The government of President Felipe Calderón, which has launched a fierce assault on the narcotics industry, was understandably indignant. But there is no question that US demand for drugs, and the tactics adopted to deal with it, are destabilising Mexico – and have been for 25 years.

Indeed, the present problem originates in a US “victory” in the war on drugs. In 1984, then Vice-President George H.W. Bush’s South Florida Task Force succeeded in bottling up the favoured point of entry for cocaine into the US. The Colombian cartels switched to the longer Pacific seaboard, inevitably godfathering a new cocaine power in north-west Mexico. Mexican cartels were soon buying politicians and policemen, generals and judges.

Mr Calderón’s offensive, designed to end this mafia impunity and seize back control, is a bloody and uphill battle; around 10,000 people have been killed over the past two years. As Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, acknowledged on a visit to Mexico last month, it is not just America’s “insatiable demand for illegal drugs” that is doing the damage, but licensed US gun dealers. They help keep Mexico’s narco-gangs better armed than its army and security services, while the US Congress is cutting back funding that would help redress the balance.

Mexico needs and has the right to expect fuller US co-operation. Both countries need to take down the ultra-violent drugs mafias. The problem is that the economics of illicit drugs ensure new criminal gangs emerge to take their place.

US drugs policy is asymmetrical in its effects on supply and demand. It has led ineluctably to the growth and spread of narcotics production. It subverts the laws of the market by putting a floor price under the product. Interdiction and eradication – especially when successful – provide narcotics with great price resilience. Disruption of supply lifts profits and recapitalises the chains of production and distribution – increasing and diversifying supply in the next phase of the cycle.

Surely it is time for a debate on whether a tightly regulated and internationally agreed decriminalisation of narcotics, along with greater effort to curb demand, is the way to destroy the financial basis of the industry – and take it out of the hands of organised crime.