The War on Drugs: A Trillion Dollar Mistake
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which means nine presidents have come and gone since its creation. The DEA is one of the largest crime-fighting organizations in the world, and its influence extends far beyond American borders. However, a rising overdose death rate, and expensive approach to the War on Drugs abroad begs to question their success in fighting abuse.
After declaring drugs “public enemy number one”, President Nixon created the agency as the main way to tackle the issue. Its 2 billion dollar budget is inefficiently spent fighting against organized crime around the world, just as America solidifies its stance as the largest consumer of illegal drugs.
The government's focus on criminalization instead of rehabilitation has isolated drug users in prisons, where vulnerable citizens are not given the tools to reintegrate back into society once their sentence is over. The War on Drugs has also taken a toll on minorities, as judges hand heavier punishments to black people and Hispanics.
Despite the obvious failure of the United States, Felipe Calderón, decided to wage his own war on drugs back in 2006. His doctrine of attacking the supply of cartels with the Army has not only been just as ineffective as the U.S’, but it has also been deemed illegal and taken the lives of more than 250 thousand civilians.
On both sides of the border, we have seen different political administrations with different ideologies take on the burden of the war, each alleging to a different approach than their predecessors, but with no real change in strategy.
Recent elections in Mexico have brought hope, as President Elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who campaigned on decriminalization and even legalization of certain drugs, has started a pacification campaign across several Mexican states as a way to counter violence and distress. The success of this new approach is yet to be seen, but it can’t be worse than the past 12 years of violence. It seems as though the only thing missing in AMLO’s strive for peace is a bilateral response from the President Trump, who appears to find issues at the border of paramount importance.