If you had asked me 10 years ago whether the United States will ever change its 
interdiction-focused counternarcotics policies – and perhaps even decriminalize marijuana consumption at home – I would have told you, “never.” Today, I say, “perhaps.”
Earlier this week, in a tacit admission that current US anti-drug policies are not working, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to create an independent commission to review whether the US anti-drug policies of the past three decades in Latin America are producing positive results.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where supporters say it has a good chance to pass, given its bipartisan support in the House. The 10-member panel, modelled after the 9/11 Commission that made recommendations to Congress and the White House after the 2001 terrorist attacks, would have to issue its report in 12 months.
Reason for change
What’s interesting about the planned independent drug policy commission is that the idea didn’t come from a pro-legalization advocate, nor any leftist or libertarian crusader. The sponsor of the bill, Rep Eliot Engel (D-NY), opposes decriminalization of drugs for non-medical use, and is as mainstream as members of Congress come.
But Engel’s frustration over the results of the US war on drugs is symptomatic of Washington’s growing skepticism about US anti-drug policies these days.
Since 1980, the United States has spent nearly $14 billion trying to stop drug-smuggling from Latin America, the bill says. While US drug consumption has declined significantly as a percentage of the population, there are still 25.7 million users of marijuana, 5.3 million users of cocaine and 453,000 users of heroin. Meanwhile, US law enforcement and prison systems are overwhelmed by prosecutions on drug-consumption charges.
Interdiction-focused policies have not changed Latin America’s status as the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and marijuana, and drug-related violence in the region has – if anything –increased. In Mexico alone, 5,661 people died in drug-related violence last year, more than double the previous year’s total. “Billions upon billions of US taxpayer dollars have been spent. In spite of our efforts, the positive results are few and far between,” says Engel, who chairs the House Western Hemisphere subcommittee. “Clearly, the time has come to take a fresh look at our counternarcotics efforts.”
The proposed commission will, among other things, take a new look at US anti-drug programmes such as Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Engel said that it will “assess all aspects of our drug policy,” although he clarified in an e-mail to me that decriminalization of marijuana is not part of his intentions for the commission.
Earlier this year, former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia signed a joint declaration suggesting that the time has come to consider decriminalization of marijuana – studies show that it’s not more harmful than alcohol and tobacco, they said – and to focus on education and prevention to reduce drug consumption.
If I had any doubt that the public mood toward anti-drug policies in the United States is changing, a conversation with former US ambassador to Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, convinced me of that. Rocha, who was known as a hard-line enforcer of US anti-drug policies when he headed the 950-strong embassy staff in Bolivia until 2002, told me that he supports the Cardoso-Zedillo-Gaviria statement.
“Things have changed,” Rocha told me. “We have to be intellectually honest, and reach the conclusion that the time has come to change the focus of our failed policies.”
Open conversation
My opinion: Washington is on the verge of beginning a taboo-free discussion on its drug policies that was unthinkable a few years ago. There are three main reasons for this: First, the US focus on “the war on drugs” of the 1990s has been replaced by the war on terrorism following the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Second, the 2008 economic crisis is moving US lawmakers to review how government funds are spent. Third, the drug-related violence in Mexico is creating growing anxiety in US national security circles.
Most likely, the proposed independent commission will not recommend decriminalization of marijuana, but will install the issue as a legitimate debate. Meantime, the Obama administration will soon announce a new National Drug Control Strategy that will focus more on demand reduction than its predecessors.
At any rate, it’s clear there is a growing sentiment that the war on drugs is not working, and that we need to further focus on drug consumers rather than drug producers.
© The Miami Herald, 2009. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Media Services.
