The Balloon Effect : A Metaphor That Compares Traditional Drug Prohibition

For many years, drugs have been the center of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Due to this widespread epidemic, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 with a campaign that promoted the prohibition of illicit substances and implemented policies to discourage the overall production, distribution, and consumption. The War on Drugs and the U.S. drug policy has experienced the most significant and complex challenges between criminal law and the values of today’s society. With implemented drug polices becoming much harsher over the years in order to reduce the overall misuse and abuse of drugs and a expanded federal budget, it has sparked a nation wide debate whether or not they have created more harm than good. When looking at the negative consequences of these policies not only has billions of dollars gone to waste, but the United States has also seen public health issues, mass incarceration, and violent drug related crime within the black market in which feeds our global demands and economy. With this failed approach for drug prohibition, there continues to be an increase in the overall production of illicit substances, high rate of violence, and an unfavorable impact to our nation.

In the past forty years, the United States has spent over $2.5 trillion dollars funding enforcement and prevention in the fight against drug use in America (Suddath). Despite the efforts made towards cracking down on drug smugglers, growers, and suppliers, statistics show that addiction rates have remained unchanged and the number of people using illegal drugs is increasing daily (Sledge). Regardless of attempts to stem the supply of drugs, the measure and quality of drugs goes up while the price goes down (Koebler). Now with the world’s highest incarceration rates and greatest illegal drug consumption (Sledge), the United States proves that the “war on drugs” is a war that is not being won.

In the last decades, narco trafficking and organized crime had emerged as the main security threats in Latin America. Deviant globalization increase their power by establishing connections with similar organizations in other parts of the world, like cocaine distribution networks, for example. This perceived danger increases the pressure on the governments for effective solutions, and some of them consider that these problems had overwhelmed the capabilities of the local police. Consequently, the intervention of military forces would be necessary to secure the stability of the countries. However, the use of force as the only solution is the outcome of a misunderstanding of the root causes that generates them. This paper presents the research for a general pattern in the region that is helpful to understand how the civil society perceives the failures of governance and how the networks of illegal activities exploit this perception.

            The militarization and criminalization of drugs in Latin America has led to a precipitous increase in violence, killing thousands of people and injuring many more. Economist Jeffrey Miron of CNN writes, “Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers

The United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of one it’s southern neighbor, Latin America. The war on drugs has been no exception. An investigation of US relations with Latin America in the period from 1820 to 1960, reveals the war on drugs to be a convenient extension of an almost 200 year-old policy. This investigation focuses on the commercial and political objectives of the US in fighting a war on drugs in Latin America. These objectives explain why the failing drug policy persisted despite its overwhelming failure to decrease drug production or trafficking. These objectives also explain why the US has recently exchanged a war on drugs for the war on

Like many other countries in Latin America and across the globe, Peru is no stranger to the economic and social impacts of illicit drug trade. However, unlike most other countries in the region like Colombia, Peru does not experience a high rate or organized crime or violence surrounding the drug trade. Although violence is minimal, the growth of cocoa and the production of cocaine is a massive industry within the country, creating an interesting dynamic between the people of Peru, those involved in the drug trade, and the Peruvian Government. The drug trade in Peru has been fueled by the geography, structure of the criminal groups involved, perceived corruption of the military and police forces, and an ineffective and overcrowded prison system.

This refers to the elimination of drug crops while they are still being grown. The U.S. has used this policy in several South American countries as a means to limit drug trafficking before it has a chance to develop. However, significantly reducing crops has not always led to decreasing drug trafficking. Reduction of drug crops in one country may lead to increased production in another. This is likely to happen when one country becomes the focus of an eradication effort, while another country can increase its production to fill in the void. If there is one thing that the world market can produce, it is its high demand of illegal drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance gives cites a specific instance verifying the problems that can be associated with eradication procedures. During the mid 1990s, “eradication efforts in Bolivia and Peru created incentives to grow coca in Columbia. While Peru experienced a 66% reduction in coca cultivation and Bolivia experienced a 53% reduction, coca cultivation in Columbia doubled. In addition, more potent strains of coca have been developed, leading to higher yielding coca crops.” This example shows the adverse effects of the policy of eradication.

El Salvador remains a major transit country for illegal drugs headed to the United States from source countries in South America. The United States government estimates that approximately 83 percent of the cocaine trafficked to the United States in the first half of 2015 first transited through the Mexico/Central America corridor. Traffickers in El Salvador use “go-fast” boats and commercial vessels to smuggle illegal drugs along the country’s coastline and to provide fuel to drug-laden vessels en route to northern destinations. The Pan-American Highway is the primary land route, with traffickers using buses and tractor-trailers to smuggle shipments. El Salvador was identified as a major transit country for the fifth year

Although Cold War may have put an end to tensions, it produced other unforeseen effects such as a significant expansion in the trafficking of illegal drugs across the in home nation’s boundaries. International travel has become easier due to the increasing technology of airports, and as basically made all nations hypothetically borderless. Even though international drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), such as the Cartel in Mexico, have never respected national boundaries, bigger markets for drug production and easier transportation of the drugs, along with increasing drug use in poor income areas, has impacted drug trafficking. Correspondingly, the universal market for drugs, and the volume of sources to provide to the drug market, is developing exponentially around the world. Once referred to as “the American disease”, Drug trafficking has now became a worldwide plague.

The international drug trade from Latin American states is having an impact on a global scale. The trafficking of drugs along with corruptness and murder is an international conflict that is being fought daily. There are many aspects of the drug war from Mexico and other Latin American states which have effects on United States policy as well as policies from other countries that participate in the global suppression of illegal drugs.

Drug prohibition is rarely viewed negatively by many Americans. The failure of drug prohibition has sparked some debate in the last fifty years, however, the ignorance about illegal substances has led to little discussion on alternatives to prohibition. Legalizing all drugs would be a better alternative than perpetuating the failed war on drugs. The drug war has negatively impacted many lives by demonizing users and corrupting public officials. Criminalizing alcohol did not work in the 1920s and the same thing is true today about illicit drugs. Prohibition has stripped away a fundamental right we should have in a free society, and that is the right to consume whatever you want as an adult. The choice to consume alcohol was stripped from us at one point, however, Congress eventually passed the 21st Amendment making alcohol legal again. Alcohol prohibition has given us the opportunity to see the transformation of a once illegal drug become a legal and regulated substance. The 18th Amendment of the Constitution made alcohol consumption, distribution and production illegal. Prohibition subsequently gave birth to a criminal industry. Prohibition fostered the growth of powerful criminal organizations. It is clear that criminalizing a substance previously legal and letting the criminal market regulate it was a failure. The illegality of alcohol led to a black market where users were persecuted by society, which is exactly what the war on drugs is doing now.

Without a doubt, drug trafficking is an enormous problem for Latin American countries and there

The earning of mass amounts of drug money has created a debate about whether the drug trade has helped or hurt the Colombian economy. Specifically, the debate centers on how narcotics have affected the economy in the short and long runs because the drug trade, in reality, has brought in millions of dollars. How this money, earned by trafficking drugs, has returned (or not returned) to the country and its population through its

Drugs can be just as addictive as power. Drug trafficking has become a major issue over the past few decades, negatively affecting nation’s economies, rather than benefiting them. In retrospect, Colombia 's economy has recently been impacted directly by drug trafficking. Colombia 's economy is the fifth largest in Latin America, and was known for its stable growth over an extended portion of time. Unfortunately, for the past few decades, any mention of Colombia’s economy has been linked with violence and illegal drug cartel. Towards the ending of the 1990s, Colombia was the principal supplier and contributor to the export of illegal drugs in the Andean area, and this directly debilitated the country 's economy. There has been a vast amount of discussion, in Colombia and all over the world, regarding the exceedingly apparent socio-political and economic effects of this illegal drug traffic (Garcia 277). Drug trafficking in Colombia has negatively affected the nation 's economy.

During the financial crisis in Mexico in 1995, it was estimated that the country’s earning from oil exports was equivalent to the same amount of money involved in the laundering of drugs and that major drug cartels in Mexico continually rake in profits in the region of ten to thirty billion dollars annually (UNESCOPRESS 2002). This goes to highlight the huge underworld of dealings in illicit drugs, not just in Mexico but globally. Following the UN Conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988 states internationally, in particular the US, have waged an arguably failing war on drugs with one of the underlying motives being the reduction of drug-related crime. Such crimes range from addicts trying to feed their expensive habit through thefts, burglary