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US War on Drugs Has Failed: Report

Americans urged to focus on treatment, prevention, gun sales

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 27, 2008 8:42 AM CST
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(Newser) – America is treating the symptoms rather than the disease of drug use, and its war on drugs will continue to fail unless it changes course, a new report by an influential Washington think tank finds. The report urges the US to develop stronger ties in the Caribbean and Latin America, where drug-interdiction efforts have suffered under the Bush administration, the LA Times reports.

Drug-fighting efforts are doomed to fail unless the problem of domestic consumption is attacked with as much zeal as the traffickers are, says the Brookings Institution report, whose co-author is Ernesto Zedillo, a former Mexican president who criticizes the American approach as "asymmetrical." "The only long-run solution to the problem of illegal narcotics is to reduce the demand for drugs in the major consuming countries, including the United States," the report states.

Francisco Flores, 42, who was deported in 1996 from the US gets a shot of heroin on the Tijuana River basin near the US-Mexico border in Tijuana earlier this year.
Francisco Flores, 42, who was deported in 1996 from the US gets a shot of heroin on the Tijuana River basin near the US-Mexico border in Tijuana earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)
Border Patrol agent Albert Deleon checks the banks of the Rio Grande, at the US-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, an area often used by smugglers.
Border Patrol agent Albert Deleon checks the banks of the Rio Grande, at the US-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, an area often used by smugglers.   (AP Photo/LM Otero )
A police officer stands next to an area where one ton of cocaine is being incinerated in San Salvador last year.
A police officer stands next to an area where one ton of cocaine is being incinerated in San Salvador last year.   (AP Photo/Luis Romero)
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The only long-run solution to the problem of illegal narcotics is to reduce the demand for drugs in the major consuming countries, including the United States. - Report from the Brookings Institution

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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
sailor86
Dec 28, 2008 7:24 PM CST
Remember "Scared Straight"? Could we resurrect that principle for today's younger generation? Some success would be success.

Report calls for different approach to Latin America
New York Times

Obama's AG likely to continue hard-line approach
Huffington Post

 
War on Drugs • Mexico • drug trafficking • drug use • Brookings Institution • counternarcotics • drug traffickers • Ernesto Zedillo

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