Inspired Post #6: Combating the Cartels - Not Legalization, Just Decriminalization

During the question and answer section of the Mexican drug cartels presentation, the issue was brought up about the possibility of legalizing drugs in the U.S. as a way to address the cause of the drug cartel problem. While I thought the policy recommendations of the presentation seemed very sound in attempting to address the effects of the U.S. and world drug problem, I thought this was a very interesting argument. As a result I did a bit more researching on the topic and found this very intriguing recording of a debate at Brown University last month regarding this very policy topic. Although it is a bit long, this first 25 min are a position statement from Glenn Greenwald, former Drug Czar to the Bush Administration, and are well worth the extra time.

Janus Forum - Should the US Legalize Drugs? from Brown University on Vimeo.

While I feel that Greenwald makes a very strong argument here, there were two aspects of his statement that really struck me. The first being his point regarding the inherent racism in the war on drugs and the second the conclusions he drew from the example of Portugal. Although I think we all have some idea regarding the extent of racism in the system, hearing the facts outlined as he did were extremely striking. I think this injustice alone is one reason why we should attempt to address the cause here at home before running abroad to fight the effects.

The distinction he makes between legalization and decriminalization with respect to Portugal rung very true with me. The idea of taking the billions of dollars a year we spend on fighting drug trade and instead turning it towards helping those individuals with addictions seems much more effective. From personal experience of dating a police office, I know that there is a significant wall between the public and law enforcement/government. Additionally, many of the police officers I know would much rather be pursuing cases regarding murder, rape, abuse, etc. in their communities than chasing around kids and criminals dealing and buying narcotics because they see a greater element of protecting their communities in the former. 

Although my knowledge in this area of policy is limited, the empirical evidence presented with the Portugal case, the inherent flaws in our existing system, and the enormous inefficiencies outlined by the Cartel team’s presentation regarding financial inefficiencies of our past efforts all lead me to feel that this is a worthwhile policy option to pursue. Simply from a point of solidarity with regard to fellow citizens, the argument of using our government funds to get them help rather than incarcerate them seems at least worth evaluating the debate. Is it just the power of lobbyist groups here in the U.S. that keep policy makers from having this discussion? Or perhaps they have had this debate already, in which case, what has kept it from acquiring footing on Capitol Hill?