The worldwide war on drugs has been a massive failure in trying to achieve its goals of keeping drugs out of the hands of people, reducing any drug use, or keeping communities safer. Cocaine today for example, is reportedly worth much less, roughly 74 percent or so cheaper, than it was 30 years ago.
The rules on drugs and the ongoing war hasn't helped addicts and it hasn't helped the people, by filling up our prisons, endangering our homes and streets, and impeding valuable research. We've been okay with spending billions of dollars of funds on an endeavor that isn't capable of achieving its goals.
According to a new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it's suggested that the war on drugs has actually helped cocaine dealers be able to conquer vast amounts of territory in Central America.
A great deal of drug control funding is being spent on efforts to try and intercept shipments of drugs and those initiatives are wasting plenty of resources. It's estimated that as much as 20 percent or more of their funding has been spent on these raids on shipments which has only brought dismal results.
Thanks to the efforts of the US to police drugs in other countries, it has allegedly fueled an arms race that has prompted traffickers to massively expand their networks in an attempt to try and do business while avoiding the state.
“The US government’s cocaine interdiction mission in the transit zone of Central America is now in its fifth decade despite its long-demonstrated ineffectiveness, both in cost and results.”- according to the study
According to the study, researchers suggest that drug traffickers in Central America today are more widespread and difficult to eradicate than ever.
This is one war that continues to cost tens of billions of dollars every year and we aren't seeing much in-return for that investment other than more of the same “problem”. It's time to re-think the strategy, stop trying to police consumption habits, and let law enforcement focus on other issues; violent crimes with victims seeking justice.
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