Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington’s Futile War on Drugs in Latin America

The domestic phase of Washington’s war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley, Kurt Schmoke, and other luminaries who have catalogued the destructive effects on American society. More recent converts such as New Mexico Governer Gary Johnson do the same. However, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbours. That lack of attention has begun to change, and there has been some disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington’s actions and even hint that the option of legalization should be considered. At the same time, the US government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. The $1.3 billion military aid package to Colombia approved by Congress in the summer of 2000 confirms that the international phase of the campaign against drugs still has powerful support. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad bring the inflammatory drug war metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States.