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A 2008 Brookings Institution report contradicts U.S. claims of heroin and cocaine use declining as a result of the War on Drugs. The report describes police and military efforts in Latin America "failing by most objective standards," and cites a lack of funding for prevention and rehabilatation within the U.S. as part of the problem. As wars between drug cartels accelerate in Latin America, the report also notes that the transportation of U.S. guns into the region is making matters worse.

A 2009 report from the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy supports these findings, stating what many people in the Americas have already noticed about U.S. drug policies: "The association of drugs with crime blocks the circulation of information and segregates drug users in closed circles where they become even more exposed to organized crime." The authors suggest treating drug addicts as patients, and providing medical care intended to treat addiction, rather than just using the threat of imprisonment as a deterrent.

Because of increasing corruption and violence in Latin America, the Commission recommends a real partnership in addressing the problem of addiction: "The question is not to find guilty countries and allocate blame for this or that action or inaction, but to reiterate that the United States and the European Union share responsibility for the problems faced by our countries, insofar as their domestic markets are the main consumers of the drugs produced in Latin America."

The Commission also suggests a reexamination of cannabis prohibition, pointing out that "the available empirical evidence shows that the harm caused by this drug is similar to the harm caused by alcohol or tobacco." This actually overstates the problem, as alcohol and tobacco clearly create much larger health and safety risks than cannabis.

The U.S. spends an estimated $15 billion per year on jailing drug offenders. Of the country's 2.4 million prisoners, 50 percent of federal inmates and 20 percent of state inmates are drug offenders. Reform will involve acknowledging the human rights of addicts by treating their conditions, ending the scientifically insupportable prohibition of cannabis, and working to replace Latin America's heroin and cocaine industries with new business models that provide steady employment. Until these reforms are implemented, the War on Drugs will continue to fail in much the same way, by focusing on supply from Latin America while neglecting to frame demand from the U.S. and EU in terms of public health and human rights.

Learn more about this author, Jonathan Young.
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