Look Who’s Talking

The United States once again lists the Dominican Republic among the countries it considers significant producers or transporters of drugs to its territory without admitting that the U.S. itself is the cause as the largest drug-consumer in the world.

President Barack Obama sent Congress a report with a list of nations of that have failed to meet their international commitments to combat drug trafficking. In no part of the report does is it mentioned whether or not Washington has met its own commitment of lowering the extremely high levels of drug consumption in the U.S., a main cause of the 42 percent increase in the production of cocaine in Colombia.

Heroin and cocaine exports to the U.S. serve as the primary source of income for South American and Mexican cartels, which use routes through Central America and the Caribbean to smuggle drugs into the country.

Opium poppy crops have increased in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala, another sign that the drug market in the U.S. is becoming more and more attractive. Otherwise, they would stick with their old-time providers of Afghanistan, Laos and Burma.

The Dominican Republican invested more than $90 million in a fleet of planes known as the Super Tucano to reduce and impede drug trafficking by air, land and sea, but we still find ourselves on the list of countries that serve as a bridge for traffickers.

It’s not understood why the Pentagon hasn’t begun permanent maritime and aerial surveillance of South American and Caribbean coasts, where planes and boats full of cocaine frequently pass.

It’s unfair to include Caribbean and Central American nations on the list of large ports for drug trafficking to the United States when it’s clear that the real problem is with Washington and its unwillingness to reduce drug consumption and keep traffickers off U.S. shores.