Bad Neighbor Policy

The domestic phase of Washington's war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from a variety of individuals. Until recently, however, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbors. That lack of attention has begun to change and Ted Carpenter chronicles our disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington while at the same time, the U.S. government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad, bring the inflammatory "drug war" metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States. In a book deriving from his work at the CATO Institute, Ted Carpenter paints a picture of this ongoing fiasco.

In this scathing attack on the United States' "War on Drugs" in Latin America, Carpenter (Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute) pronounces the policy to have given rise to a rising tide of corruption and violence and a growing hostility among Latin Americans towards their own governments and the United States. He describes the roots of the policy in the Nixon years, examines its expansion and militarization under the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and looks at the possibilities for spreading violence in Colombia and Mexico because of the policy. He also devotes one chapter to discussion of the domestic consequences of the Drug War, urging the abandonment of prohibitionist strategies throughout the Americas. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Publishers Weekly

Far from a sloganeering metaphor, the war on drugs is an all-too-bloody reality, argues this meticulous and impassioned indictment of U.S. drug policy. While it has eroded civil liberties at home, the author argues, the war on drugs has been a catastrophe for Latin American countries. Their governments have been pressured by the U.S. into adopting a heavy-handed and unpopular program of drug prohibition; peasants have had their crops poisoned by drug eradication programs; dozens of planes have been shot down at the behest of U.S. surveillance teams; and brutal DEA-organized drug sweeps have inspired large protests. Meanwhile, he says, the proceeds from the illicit drug trade flow into the hands of criminal syndicates and guerilla insurgents, fueling the civil war in Colombia and a plague of corruption and gang violence throughout Latin America. Meanwhile, despite all the attempts at suppression, the worldwide market for drugs has exploded and drug prices are as low as ever. Carpenter, a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute and author of The Captive Press, argues that the failure of the war on drugs is the predictable consequence of defying the law of supply and demand. Given the strong market for drugs, attempts at prohibition result in high prices and irresistible profits for farmers and smugglers willing to risk criminal sanctions. The only solution, he contends, is full legalization of marijuana, cocaine and heroin. It s a provocative thesis, but Carpenter s thorough research, sober argumentation and clear writing strengthen this challenge to what he sees as the reigning prohibitionist orthodoxy. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Ted Galen Carpenter is Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Captive Press, among other titles.