The War On Drugs

Rolling Stone has published a very interesting history of the United States' War on Drugs. It describes how the presidential administrations starting back with Nixon have tried different approaches towards quelling the production and transportation of narcotics from South America and how the cartels changed and adapted to meet the new restrictions. It describes how the Columbians split up after Pablo Escobar was killed and how the Mexicans began to get more and more power and eventually began introducing methamphetamine into the American market.

What meth proved was that even if the DEA could wipe out every last millionaire cocaine goon in Colombia, burn every coca field in Bolivia and Peru, and build an impenetrable wall along the entire length of the Mexican border - even then, we wouldn't have won the War on Drugs, because there would still be methamphetamine, and after that, something else.

This article is well detailed and teaches a lot about how we've gotten into this mess, and how even $500 billion later, we are no better off than we were in the 1970s. Lobbying by pharmaceutical companies and military executives has led to misguided politics and useless enforcement. Drug use has not changed, drug prices have gone down and purity has risen.

"The lesson of U.S. drug policy is that this world runs on unintended consequences. No matter how noble your intentions, there's a good chance that in solving one problem, you'll screw something else up."

Pretty wise words.

Link to article.