The Legalization of Drugs

Before 1980, drug trafficking across the Mexican border had been reduced to just marijuana and small amounts of heroin that were distributed by a large number of scattered organizations. This zone was barely used at all to bring in cocaine. Those illegal shipments arrived through the Bahamas or in small planes that flew from Colombia into Florida.

Everything changed in the ‘80s when Washington increased its control over the Caribbean. In response to the interdiction policy, the Colombian cartels consolidated their relationships with the main Mexican drug traffickers. It was only a few years before close to 85 percent of cocaine entered through the Mexican-American border. The increase in trafficking led to the growth of cartels like the Juarez, Sinaloa and Tijuana Cartels. Everything worsened in the ‘90s when the Colombian drug traffickers began to replace payments in dollars with payments in cocaine. This allowed their partners in Mexico to create their own distribution networks, with their own customers and rules.

In only 10 years the Mexican cartels had consolidated and infiltrated all areas of the government. Vicente Fox, who was elected in 2000, tried to reform the customs agency and the Federal Police in an attempt to stop the governmental breakdown. His efforts were taken up by his successor, Felipe Calderón, who decided to take advantage of the only force not penetrated by drug trafficking: the army. More than 45,000 men are currently engaged in the president’s anti-cartel policy. The fight has brought with it an estimated 22,000 deaths since 2006, the year in which Calderón took office.

This context of homicides, reminiscent of the era of the cartels of Calí and Medellín, has reopened the debate over legalization of drugs. History has shown us once again that this is a war that is already lost and that the only victory — if one even exists — consists in moving the war from one country to another. While institutions are weak but the financial system is well enough developed for money laundering, this well-known business will continue to establish itself in the financial system.

Much has been said about legalization in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. In fact, during his presidency, Vicente Fox pushed this idea. But despite the list of dead, the policy of the United States continues to be prohibition, and with prohibition comes high prices for drugs. These prices offer profit margins of 800 percent for certain products like cocaine. With profits like this, there will always be someone willing to risk their life in this business.

However, we do have to celebrate the fact that there are a few breaths of change coming. On the one hand, although he denied the possibility of legalization, President Obama accepted the necessity of redirecting efforts towards education in a speech last May. On the other hand, more than 14 states have approved the decriminalization of marijuana for medicinal uses. In fact, next November, California could become the first state to legalize the sale and possession of marijuana.

Although for many these changes are overly modest, they show to some extent a weakening of the prohibition argument, or at least a change in attitudes that will allow the debate to occur. The mere fact that one can now discuss openly and with greater force the possibility of even a gradual and conditional legalization of drugs allows us to consider an end, possibly not be too far away, to the list of deaths caused by this fruitless war.