This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
Of the many issues that national politicians routinely gloss over during campaign season, one they're least likely to touch -- and haven't, in any real way, since the 1980s -- is drug policy. A discussion of the costs and benefits of our current policies is largely anathema in our political environment.
But the country ignores the issue at its own peril.
Within the United States, the so called "drug war" has been a significant factor propelling the growth of our grossly outsized prison population -- with many people serving lengthy sentences for relatively minor crimes. As my colleague at Human Rights Watch, Jamie Fellner, has noted in The Huffington Post, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to arrest and incarcerate drug offenders, including millions whose crime was possession of marijuana.
Of those in prison, a vastly disproportionate number are people of color. Human Rights Watch has documented extensively stunning and persistent racial disparities in both arrest and incarceration of drug offenders. Black and white people commit drug offenses at similar rates, but black men are ten times as likely as white men to enter state prisons on drug charges. The impact on the broader black community is devastating.
Meanwhile, organized crime and armed groups that have for decades terrorized people in distant places like Colombia or Guatemala continue to operate, fueled by seemingly limitless cash flows from the illicit drug market. The United States has poured millions of dollars into foreign militaries to stem the flow of drugs, but the criminal groups continue to wield enormous power to corrupt and intimidate -- and to kill; while those foreign militaries are often responsible for serious human rights violations. Sometimes they work together.
In Colombia, for example, which U.S. officials like to trot out as a success story, nearly a third of the Congress has come under investigation in recent years for working with drug-running paramilitary mafias. Armed groups continue to displace tens of thousands of Colombians every year. In Mexico, with the vast ramping up of the drug war over the last six years, personal security has plummeted and the homicide rate has exploded, with more than 60,000 drug-related killings since 2007. The Mexican government attributes many of those killings to the drug cartels, which routinely engage in public displays of violence, such as hanging mutilated bodies from overpasses, to sow terror. But the security forces themselves -- which have received substantial U.S. funding -- have also engaged in widespread abuses, including torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, as Human Rights Watch recently documented.
Similar issues crop up in other parts of the world where the United States has important security interests, including Afghanistan, where warlords and armed groups, including the Taliban, also reap huge profits from illegal drugs.
The Obama administration has, in a mild way, changed some of the rhetoric around drugs. And recent legislative changes to reduce federal sentencing disparities between different types of cocaine offenses (which had contributed to racial disparities) have been a positive step.
Other governments and world leaders have recently been talking more openly about the costs, including in human rights terms, of the current paradigm. In fact, it is the presidents of Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala -- countries bearing many of the worst costs of drug policy -- who have been calling for a debate about decriminalization or legalization of cocaine. Brazil is looking into decriminalizing personal use of drugs. Uruguay, where personal use has never been criminalized, is moving toward some form of legalization and regulation of the sale of marijuana.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy, made up of several former Latin American presidents and such notables as former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz and former EU High Representative Javier Solana, has also called for "break[ing] the taboo," and encouraged governments to experiment with alternative approaches to drugs. Not everyone agrees on the right way to go on drug policy, but at least some leaders and governments are having an open discussion about it. Whether a different set of policies would better serve human rights and U.S. interests is something that U.S. policymakers may genuinely disagree about. But a rigorous debate within the United States about drug policy and its financial and human rights consequences is long overdue. The country should start now.
Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno is acting U.S. program director at Human Rights Watch.
HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at America's failed war on drugs August 28th and September 4th from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to check it out -- and join the conversation.
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at America's failed war on drugs August 28th and September 4th from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to check it out -- and join the conversation.
The so-called drug war must first be cleaned up at home. There are big business interest in trafficking of narcotics in the US, they have their lobbies to push their agenda. Then their corrupted Politicos from local, state and US Officials whom profit off this trade on way or another.
When clinics are built to help addicts, they create counter addiction programs. Loans are given to fund this business enterprises which needs a steady diet of hooked clients in order to make money. They must pay off these loans, if the US dries up the access of drugs on the streets, they cannot pay off these loans or make a profit off these clinics, this is one example that is given.
The drug war, its nefarious activities, gov funded drug taskforces, which employs thousands, drug clinics, anti addiction drugs, hospice for drug addicts, all are supported by the illegal narco trafficking trade.
3. Talking of Uruguay, I have to say I'm rather disappointed by the reaction of the current president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, to its proposal. Instead of criticising Uruguay, Mr Santos could have said: I support Uruguay but we need a regional response. So, let's take this opportunity to unite around Uruguay and move the debate forward. Mr. Santos’ reaction could not be more disappointing, for in an interview he gave last year he said, and I quote: ’I would be crucified if I took the first step’ Well, I'm afraid it is Mr Santos who is now trying to crucify Uruguay for taking the first step! More on this here: bit.ly/MoGmqm
Gart Valenc
Twitter: @gartvalenc
I couldn't agree more, Maria. I would like to make a couple of comments, though:
1. As a European citizen who looks in horror at the heinous consequences Prohibition and the so- called War on Drugs policies have had on drug producing and transit countries, in particular Latin American ones, I cannot help but feel ashamed by the total lack of support shown so far by European countries for the call made by sitting Latin American presidents to engage in an open debate to find alternatives to current drugs policies. More on this here: bit.ly/L58gXx
2. I do wholeheartedly welcome Uruguay's initiative. So far, it is the only country in Latin America that seems to understand that decriminalising the demand while keeping illegal the supply is the worst of both worlds for producing & transit countries. I have no doubt it is going to be a difficult and challenging journey, but I hope the same rational approach will be applied to all drugs, not just marihuana. More on this here: bit.ly/PlsIa1
Gart Valenc
Twitter: @gartvalenc
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