Ending 40 Years Of Drug War: The Impact On Latin America -- Patrick Corcoran, Christian Science Monitor
Today is the 40th anniversary of Nixon declaring a 'war on drugs.' Many Latin Americans are calling for an alternative strategy, but the short-term consequences could be dire for this region.
The 40th anniversary of Washington's war on drugs has sparked calls for the decriminalization of narcotics, but what may seem like common sense for the US could spell disaster for Latin America.
Pleas for reform have come from a wide variety of voices. David Simon, creator of the TV series "The Wire," recently published an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder offering a new season of the popular show in exchange for a reconsideration of the war on drugs. In The New York Times, Charles Blow called the war “an unmitigated disaster, an abomination of justice, and a self-perpetuating, trillion-dollar economy of wasted human capital, ruined lives, and decimated communities.”
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My Comment: While many believe that the war on drugs has been a failure, others believe that if drugs are legalized, greater problems would follow. What is my take .... tens of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands in jail, billions upon billions spent .... yup .... time to re-evaluate our present strategy for something else. Governments will probably (in the end) legalize the sale of narcotics .... but my suggestion is that if that becomes the case .... we should be ready for the onslaught of drug addiction and the social problems that it produces. How much of a problem this can be .... one only has to look at Afghanistan and its 1-2 million addicts to realize that we may get rid of one problem, but the next problem will dwarf what it replaced.