Here is an excerpt from my research for my masters thesis and now published book: "Trending High: The Call for Drug Policy Reform" available on Amazon.com
The illegal drug economy has grown to a billion dollar industry worldwide, as criminals are earning profits from illegal drugs grown from plants commonly known as the most popular drugs- cannabis, cocaine, and heroin. Despite Latin America’s effort to impede the spread of violence by emulating the United States’ strict guidelines to criminalize all drugs and prosecute offenders, the high cost on the War on Drugs disenfranchises every citizen in all Latin and Central American countries through the thriving black market of the drug trade, human trafficking, and drug related crimes in poor communities. The negative consequences of the War on Drugs outweighs the positive outlook of controlling drug consumption in Latin America.
Drug criminalization policy transformed into a security issue in Latin and Central America.
Fighting the War on Drugs through militarization no longer works to control power drug cartel’s corruption over political officials and law enforcement. Therefore, Latin American countries are slowly disembarking on the criminalization of drugs by being open to the idea of drug policy reform in comparison to the Portugal model of decriminalization and implementation of harm reduction. In response to the violence accompanying from cartels and corruption within the government, Mexico decriminalized small possession of numerous illicit drug in 2009. The discrepancy of Mexico’s contemporary drug policy reform exposes their flaw of recognizing the characteristics between a small drug dealer opposite to the personal use of the illicit substance.
The lucrative business of smuggling drugs equates to astronomical revenue in the Latin American countries, but at what cost does drug trafficking affects an individual.
There are countless people in the United States with the perceived misconception from Hollywood movies and news coverage of Mexicans, who are portrayed as drug traffickers and criminals contributing to the violence in the Southwestern US borders. We need to change our thinking of a vast majority of illegal immigrants are crossing the US borders everyday to escape the violence, because of the United States’ repercussions of the failed drug enforcement policy. Innocent people kidnapped from their communities are the forefront of human trafficking.
Unless the demand of illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine, regresses in the United States, drug cartels will continue to take the risks of profiting from personal vices of illegal drug use.