NCJ Number
155022
Journal
Foreign Policy Volume: 85 Dated: (1991) Pages: 107-128
Date Published
1991
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This analysis of drug policies in the United States concludes that current policies need major changes to shift the emphasis from its costly and ineffective efforts at supply reduction in source countries to a focus on treatment, education, and urban development within the United States.
Abstract
The United States drug war in Andean cocaine-producing countries rests on law enforcement and economic assistance, but these efforts have produced dismal results with respect to supply reduction, democracy, and human rights. In addition, the logic used to escalate the drug war is strikingly similar to the arguments advanced when United States counterinsurgency strategies were failing in Vietnam and elsewhere. Tragically, the Bush administration and Congress remain stubbornly committed to the current strategy. Policymakers remain unwilling to admit that no Andean supply-reduction strategy can reduce the demand for drugs at home. The required policy shift would not mean abandoning the Andes. Instead, the United States should improve export controls, strengthen fragile democracies, encourage equitable growth and development, and discourage violence and abuses of human rights. At the same time, it should focus efforts on reducing drug consumption and drug- related violence in the United States. Footnotes