After a half a century of failure, the U.S. and Mexico have an opportunity to find a new way forward on narcotics policy.
On June 17,1971, President Richard Nixon stood in front of the White House press corps and made his historic declaration of a new type of war. “Public Enemy No.1 in the United States is drug abuse,” he said. “In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it’s necessary to wage a new all-out offensive.” It would be a governmentwide effort, and rally the United States power abroad to stem the supply of drugs. Among the countries targeted was Mexico, which was home to abundant marijuana production and had been resistant to aerial crop spraying. Nearly 50 years later, the war on drugs has left a trail of destruction. Almost 72,000 Americans died as a result of drug overdoses last year. People of color have been disproportionally hurt by mass incarceration for drug offenses, devastating families and communities. And law enforcement efforts against drug crimes are behind many police killings, including that of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., in March. Here in Mexico, I have spent the last decade and a half covering what more closely resembles a real war. Much of the nation’s armed forces have mobilized against drug cartels since late 2006. In the 14 years since then, Mexico has suffered more than 270,000 homicides, many at the hands of cartel gunmen or the security forces fighting them. And to rub salt in the wounds, some of the very security officials leading this war in Mexico are accused of working with the cartels. The country’s former public security secretary, Genaro García Luna, is in a New York jail facing drug-trafficking charges. A former secretary of defense, Salvador Cienfuegos, is also accused of working with traffickers; he was indicted in New York but on Wednesday prosecutors agreed to drop the charges and transfer him to Mexico, where the government says the inquiry will continue. But many here wonder if justice really extends to the powerful in this war. Yet along with this record of failure, there is an opportunity to forge a new path on drug policy on both sides of the Rio Grande.
