Editorial: War on Drugs has been a failure – The Reporter

Following news of the brutal and tragic slaying of women and children in La Mora, Mexico, President Trump took to Twitter to call on Mexico to offer American support in Mexicos drug war. This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. We merely await a call from your great new president! he tweeted.

While President Trump is right to want to see those responsible held accountable for their actions, its wrong to pretend that governments havent been waging a war on drugs for several decades now and that it has been anything other than a costly failure.

For decades, drug prohibition has provided a lucrative revenue source for cartels, street gangs, terrorist organizations and guerilla groups around the world.

While millions of Americans have been hit with criminal records, and hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been killed in conflicts financed by drug trafficking, what do we have to show for it?

An opioid crisis. Continued street gang violence. And perpetually destabilized neighbors to the south. Alas, the message now, as in years past, is the same: We must double down on a failed approach.

In 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon deployed the military to reduce drug violence in the Mexican state of Michoacn. The intentions were good, but the results have been tragic.

According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, since 2006, about 150,000 organized crime-linked murders have happened in Mexico, with violence getting worse in recent years.

Former presidents of Mexico Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo have come to realize that the war on drugs cannot be won and have called for legalization and other reforms to global drug policy. Its a position Trump himself once held. Were losing badly the war on drugs, Trump said in 1990. You have to legalize drugs to win that war.

Little has changed since 1990, though Trump had the right idea then.

The status quo does little to nothing to stop drug abuse, while enriching violent cartels. More of the same or a wall wont change that.

If Americans want a more stable Mexico and Central America, as well as a more humane drug policy, they should support drug law reform.

-- Orange County Register, MediaNews Group

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Editorial: War on Drugs has been a failure - The Reporter