by A. Best

Created on: May 30, 2008   Last Updated: August 11, 2008

As a child in the 1980's, I was raised by a television set. My young, sponge-like brain soaked up every broad casted detail, especially advertisements. I recall being disturbed by an ominous black frying pan. "This is your brain on drugs." The commercial was outrageously vague. I had no clue what drugs were, but I knew they were certainly after me and wanted to kill me. After dark, I hid under the covers in sheer terror that cocaine might find me. I screamed "NO!" into every dark corner because that's what Nancy Reagan said to do. All I have to do is say no. Right?

About a decade before I was emotionally damaged by anti-drug commercials, Richard Nixon declared war on narcotics. Maybe no one understood how complicated and costly this undertaking would prove to be. The international drug trade has twisted and morphed into every confusing form of frustration conceivable for the last 35 years. To this day, the black market consistently evolves and resurrects itself, becoming more powerful after every molting.

Eradicating coca and opium poppies in the fields have been a popular strategy encouraged by the US during this failed war, essentially attempting to kill the monster while it's in the crib. In the late 1970s, the US teamed up with Mexico to douse their poppy fields with Agent Orange. In 1988, they developed a law for Bolivia to follow, basically telling them where they would destroy their own coca. In 1993, the DEA supported by the Thai Army, slashed and burned thousands of acres of Southeast Asian poppy.

How does the United States get these things done? And why is it seemingly our sole responsibility when drug abuse plagues many other nations around the globe? Why do we care about subsistence farmers in the cloud forests of Bolivia when no more than 2% of Bolivian coca ends up as cocaine in the US? It's simply the world's lone superpower flexing her wings, using every tactic from charity to duress in order to reach benchmarks.

Great Britain used to be responsible for the world's problems, relying on their superior naval influence. Ironically, the British were once the most powerful drug traffickers the world has ever known. As far back as 1729, Chinese emperors were troubled by the extent of opium use in China. A century later, Britain would go to war with China for the sole purpose of forcing them to open their ports to opium.

After World War II, England emerged from its slug fest with the Third Reich battered and limping; the baton, slippery with blood,

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