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, was happily clanked on the floor and rolled towards Captain America. Now with every resource at our disposal, we would wage an assault on injustice everywhere.
But after decades of encouraging eradication, funding unfeasible alternative crops, funding foreign infrastructures that don't always bake, funding shady foreign armies, and chasing down drug lords like Pablo Escobar in Colombia and Khun Sa in Southeast Asia, have we seen improvement? The answer is no.
While Bolivian security forces reluctantly destroy the coca crops of destitute farmers, more coca is being produced in Colombia and Peru. Southeast Asia is no longer a hot bed for heroin production, but Afghanistan is with 90% of the world's heroin supply coming from that war sick country.
Price, purity, and consumption of narcotics have remained unchanged. Furthermore, a new, especially dangerous drug has risen. In the 1990's, Mexico impregnated the cocaine trade with a litter of young new poisons called methamphetamines. These guys would latch onto the sissy bars of the Hell's Angels for distribution.
The US needs a more empirical solution. Why is there a demand for narcotics in America? You can't blame agriculture. It was inevitable that chemists would learn to isolate the active ingredients in coca and opium plants, creating morphine and cocaine, then heroin. You can't blame the experimenter; its only human nature to discover doors and open them, even if those doors expose us to our own destruction.
Emotional pain and suffering due to loss, depression, and hopelessness are responsible for the current drug problem. Drug addicts will do and risk anything for two minutes of euphoria, anything to erase the feelings. Much like poppies and coca shrubs, these unpleasant feelings have been around forever. Governments can't necessarily solve these kinds of issues.
The best strategy for the US to follow in the war on drugs does not require AK 47s, Blackhawks, and millions in foreign aid. Treatment is the best angle to reduce demand in this country. Big Brothers Big Sisters, after school programs, and community-oriented policing are great options to help reduce drug use. The answers aren't on the other side of the planet, but right here.