War on Drugs Shows Limited Success

Jan 26, 2012
Rupert Taylor

Illicit Drug Trade Booms Despite Enforcement. - ClintJCL

Governments have deployed armies, police forces, and massive amounts of money to try to stem the flow of drugs; the effort has hardly dented the trade.

More than 40 years ago, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “War on Drugs.”

At a press conference in June 1971 Mr. Nixon named illicit drug abuse as “public enemy number one in the United States.”

A major effort was launched by the U.S. and other countries to cut into the criminal activity that supported the illegal narcotics trade. In addition, addicts were to get help getting off the substances that were destroying their lives.

The Expensive War on Drugs

The cost has been high. The non-profit group Drug Sense says that the U.S. federal government alone spent $500 a second on the war on drugs in 2010; state and local governments spent an additional $800 a second.

As well, “Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 19 seconds.” This adds about 10,000 people to the U.S. prison population every year.

But, the U.S. is not alone in this so-called war. Other countries, such as Mexico, have spent massively in lives and money. In 2010, Mexico experienced drug-related killings at the rate of one every 35 minutes. The government has deployed almost 200,000 police and soldiers to combat the drug gangs and more than 3,000 of these have lost their lives in the fight. The financial cost is hard to pinpoint but it’s in the tens of billions of dollars; money a relatively poor country such as Mexico can ill-afford to divert from its meagre social programs.

So, has it all been worth it?

Verdict on the War on Drugs

In June 2011, to mark four decades of effort in combatting narcotics the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a United Nations agency, issued a report. It said that the global “war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”

The report goes on to say that cracking down on drug traffickers has hardly put a dent in the trade; extra policing and tough prison sentences show “that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won.”

Among the distinguished authors are former UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan and former U.S. cabinet member George P. Schultz. They say politicians know the battle is lost and should have the courage to say so in public. One of them has.

Juan Manuel Santos is the President of Colombia, a country that has been ravaged more than any other by the illegal narcotics trade. Drugs have fuelled a decades-long civil war and created trafficking groups that have largely ignored government rule. Police officers, judges, politicians, journalists, and many innocent bystanders have been killed by the drug dealers.

In a November 2011 interview with the British newspaper The Guardian he said it is time to rethink the war on drugs: “A new approach should try and take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking…If that means legalizing, and the world thinks that’s the solution, I will welcome it. I’m not against it.”

The current strategy has not delivered hoped-for changes. The Global Commission on Drug Policy agrees with President Santos that it’s time for a change: “Arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of these people in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations.”

The report notes there seems to be an almost inexhaustible supply of people ready to risk the dangers of the drug trade, and it’s an attempt to escape poverty that is a main motive.

And an in-depth series of reports in the British medical journal The Lancet (January 2012) reaches the same conclusion. For the most part, the war on drugs fails to achieve its goals. Writing about the Lancet series Andre Picard (Globe and Mail, January 2012) says that putting high-level drug dealers in prison “can have an impact on supply and prices, at least temporarily, but street-level enforcement is generally costly and ineffective.”

He adds that putting drug users in prison for long stretches is “very expensive and does little to reduce illicit drug use.” However, a short and immediate sentence, along with forced testing for drug use after release, does seem to cut substance abuse.

A Small Change in Drug War Tactics

The Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPAC) says that even though there have been a growing number of seizures, reports suggest the drug market continues to produce the same, or even higher, quantities of illicit drugs.

The DPAC cites a United Nations estimate that only 10 to 15 percent of heroin and 30 percent of cocaine is intercepted worldwide. That number needs to increase to 70 percent to substantially reduce the industry. “Developed efforts of drug control authorities in some countries have merely moved drug trafficking operations to weaker jurisdictions and forced greater organizational sophistication.

“Economists call this the ‘balloon effect’ since squeezing by law enforcement in one area only leads to a rise elsewhere.”

So, while criminal enforcement is still at the centre of world drug policy, DPAC says some nations have shifted their focus toward reducing consumption. Lower demand means lower prices and less profit, making the whole industry less financially appealing.

Sources

“Drug War Clock.” DrugSense.org, accessed January 25, 2011.
“Global Commission on Drug Policy Report.” June 2, 2011.
“Juan Manuel Santos: ‘It Is Time to Think Again About the War on Drugs.’ ” John Mulholland, The Guardian, November 12, 2011.
“1 in 20 Used Illicit Drugs in the Past Year.” Andre Picard, Globe and Mail, January 9, 2012.
“Drug Policy Alliance 10 Year Review.” Drug Policy Alliance, August 1, 2005.