Stone-Cold Bust

For nearly half a century the United States has driven much of the world bat shit crazy with its insane War on Drugs. That undertaking even trumped the other obsession of waging war on terrorism when, in May 2001, President George W. Bush authorized a payment of $43 million to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan as a bribe to eradicate that nation’s opium crop. Four months later Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda, protected by that same Taliban, launched the infamous 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

But one need not travel to Afghanistan for comparable examples of the disastrous consequences of the War on Drugs. Just look south. Mexico, in particular, has been torn apart by what is in effect a civil war between drug lords and the federal police over who controls public life. But now, finally, Mexico and other Latin American countries are showing signs of having had enough.

In November 2015 Mexico’s supreme court laid the groundwork for legalizing marijuana by determining that it is a protected human right for individuals to grow and smoke weed for personal use. The New York Times reported, “The decision reflects a changing dynamic in Mexico, where for decades the American-backed antidrug campaign has produced much upheaval but few lasting victories.… The country, dispirited by the ceaseless campaign against traffickers, remains engulfed in violence.”