U.S. may reassess war on drugs

If you had asked me 10 years ago whether the United States would ever change its interdiction-focused counternarcotics policies — and perhaps even decriminalize marijuana consumption at home — I would have told you, “never.” Today, I say, “perhaps.”

Earlier this week, in a tacit admission that current U.S. anti-drug policies are not working, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to create an independent commission to review whether the U.S. anti-drug policies of the past three decades in Latin America are producing positive results.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where supporters say it has a good chance to pass, given its bipartisan support in the House. The 10-member panel, modeled after the 9/11 Commission that made recommendations to Congress and the White House after the 2001 terrorist attacks, would have to issue its report in 12 months.

What’s interesting about the planned independent drug policy commission is that the idea didn’t come from a pro-legalization advocate, nor any leftist or libertarian crusader. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., opposes decriminalization of drugs for non-medical use, and is as mainstream as members of Congress come.

But Engel’s frustration over the results of the U.S. war on drugs is symptomatic of Washington’s growing skepticism about U.S. anti-drug policies these days.

Billions spent

Since 1980, the United States has spent nearly $14 billion trying to stop drug-smuggling from Latin America, the bill says. While U.S. drug consumption has declined significantly as a percentage of the population, there are still 25.7 million users of marijuana, 5.3 million users of cocaine and 453,000 users of heroin. Meanwhile, U.S. law enforcement and prison systems are overwhelmed by prosecutions on drug-consumption charges.

Interdiction-focused policies have not changed Latin America’s status as the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and marijuana, and drug-related violence in the region has — if anything — increased. In Mexico alone, 5,661 people died in drug-related violence last year, more than double the previous year’s total.

“Billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been spent. In spite of our efforts, the positive results are few and far between,” says Engel, who chairs the House Western Hemisphere subcommittee. “Clearly, the time has come to take a fresh look at our counternarcotics efforts.”

The proposed commission will, among other things, take a new look at U.S. anti-drug programs such as Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Engel said that it will “assess all aspects of our drug policy,” although he clarified in an e-mail to me that decriminalization of marijuana is not part of his intentions for the commission.

Earlier this year, former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia signed a joint declaration suggesting that the time has come to consider decriminalization of marijuana — studies show that it’s not more harmful than alcohol and tobacco, they said — and to focus on education and prevention to reduce drug consumption.

Public mood

If I had any doubt that the public mood toward anti-drug policies in the United States is changing, a conversation with former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, convinced me of that. Rocha, who was known as a hard-line enforcer of U.S. anti-drug policies when he headed the 950-strong embassy staff in Bolivia until 2002, told me that he supports the Cardoso-Zedillo-Gaviria statement.

“Things have changed,” Rocha told me. “We have to be intellectually honest, and reach the conclusion that the time has come to change the focus of our failed policies.”

My opinion: Washington is on the verge of beginning a taboo-free discussion on its drug policies that was unthinkable a few years ago.

X Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.