Liberals and conservatives across the Americas are addicted to the war on drugs. Most leaders across the political spectrum privilege hard-line policies over harm reduction. And while some enlightened politicians and civic activists in the US are waking-up to the potential social and economic dividends of decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, Latin America's political elite are dragging their heels.
For a generation Latin America's left wingers have defended the rights of workers and the poor. They have led massive social justice movements and fought for progressive policies to benefit the disenfranchised. And yet a majority of those on the left have yet to acknowledge that one of the most significant injustices is the half-century old war on drugs. Literally millions of people, most of them poor and black, have been killed, injured, displaced and impoverished by repressive drug policies.
It is no secret that drug policy is predisposed against poor people of color. As former US President Jimmy Carter made clear in my film Quebrando o Tabu (Breaking the Taboo): "there is clear proof of racism in laws regulating the use of narcotics." One does not have to go further than a prison in any country in the region to see his point. For example, in the US, over 10 per cent of the population is African-American, yet they make up roughly 40 per cent of the almost 2.1 million male inmates.
It is not just leftist pundits who are short-sighted on drug policy. North and Latin American politicians on the right are just as blind to the pernicious effects of drug policies as their left-leaning counterparts. Many of them are unable or unwilling to acknowledge the damaging effects of the drug war on business and investment. Expenditures devoted to incarcerating low-level drug users run into the billions of dollars a year. And the human and financial costs of treating people who contract diseases from shared needles are incalculable.
Why, in spite of all the evidence of its horrible consequences, does the drug war persist? There is comparatively little good evidence to back the United Nation's list of prohibited substances. In fact, there is no single reported death associated with the use of marijuana but hundreds of millions of people have died as a result of tobacco. The fact is that the scientific evidence on drugs is subordinate to ideological and racial criteria that emphasize continued persecution and imprisonment of small-time traffickers and consumers.
Latin Americans of all political stripes need a new narrative on drug policy. But the pressure for change must also come from below. During recent protests in Brazil, an important opportunity to focus the energy of young people on more effective approaches to dealing with drugs was lost. While youngsters called for improvements in social and economic conditions, they failed to identify the extraordinary wastage of tax-payers money on incarcerating the poor. Instead of spending thousands locking people up in the country, what if those funds were devoted to their education, improved healthcare, and food security?
For those on the left and right, a more positive debate on drug policy is warranted on both ethical and economic grounds. And there are signs that some Latin American leaders are taking the first steps to ending the war on drugs. Latin America has an historic opportunity to make a break with the past. They will need all the political support they can get.