Question

What are the consequences of the U.S. war on drugs on Mexico?

Answer 1

America is at war.  We have been fighting drug abuse for almost a century.  Four Presidents have personally waged war on drugs.  Unfortunately, it is a war that we are losing.  Drug abusers continue to fill our courts, hospitals, and prisons.  The drug trade causes violent crime that ravages our neighborhoods.  Children of drug abusers are neglected, abused, and even abandoned.  The only beneficiaries of this war are organized crime members and drug dealers.

The United States has focused its efforts on the criminalization of drug use and trafficker's coming from Mexico.  The government has spent billions of dollars trying to get rid the supply of drugs coming into our country.  These intervention efforts and law enforcement attempts to control the drugs have not been successful nor have they met with decreases in the availability of drugs in America. There are actually more drugs now than ever before! Apart from being super expensive, drug law and drug enforcement has been counterproductive, it does not work.  Our current drug laws need to be reviewed and revamped so that they are more effective or are a deterrent to those to bring drug into the US.  The United States needs to shift spending from law enforcement and penalization to education, treatment, and prevention.