A WOLA Special ReportN o v e m b e r 2 0 0 4A special edition of the Drug War Monitor series of WOLA’s “Drugs, Democracy and Human Rights” project, which examines the impact of drug traffi cking and U.S. international drug control policies on human rights and democratization trends throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.Drugs and Democracy in Latin America:The Impact of U.S. PolicyColetta A. Youngers and Eileen Rosin, EditorsEXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis summary has been adapted by Coletta A. Youngers from Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. PolicyThe United States has been fi ghting the war on drugs for decades, across the nation and throughout the hemisphere. Police offi cers, prosecutors, doctors, social workers, soldiers, counselors and countless others have invested their energy and expertise—and have even risked their lives—to combat drug traffi cking and drug abuse. Their efforts are impressive and appreciated. Twenty-fi ve years and 25 billion dollars later, however, we are no closer to solving the problem—that is, to reducing drug abuse and availability in the United States. In fact, we seem to be farther away than ever. U.S. international drug control policy is designed to reduce or eliminate the supply of illicit drugs in this country. In theory, their scarcity would then drive up prices and consequently discourage demand. However, the price of cocaine and heroin are at or near all-time lows in spite of intensive efforts to eradicate crops and interdict drug shipments. Meanwhile, the Justice Department considers cocaine and heroin to be “readily available”; powder and crack cocaine use are apparently on the rise, and heroin use remains stable after surging during the 1990s.2 Clearly, the supply-reduction model does not work.In Latin America, the source of most of the cocaine and heroin on U.S. streets, the drug war has not only failed to curb production and traffi cking, but has weakened democratic institutions. It also disproportionately targets the rural poor, who have few economic alternatives aside from growing illicit crops and who benefi t the least from the drug trade. Concerned by the collateral damage of the drug war, WOLA commissioned an in-depth investigation into the impact of drug control policies on human rights and democracy JEREMY BIGWOOD2 Executive Summary Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policyin Latin America, giving particular attention to how counterdrug policies have affected the region’s militaries, police forces, and judicial and legal systems. The book includes detailed studies on U.S. military and police drug control assistance programs, and case studies from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and the Caribbean, all major cultivation, production, or transit zones. We found that in one nation after another, U.S. drug control policies are undermining human rights and democracy and causing enormous damage to some of the most vulnerable populations in the hemisphere. The United States’ insistence on zero tolerance for drug crops has led to massive forced eradication of coca and opium poppy crops, often the principal source of income for impoverished farmers. With few alternatives available, these families are ratcheted down into deeper poverty when their most important cash crop is destroyed. The region’s militaries, which have not been held accountable for widespread human rights abuses and authoritarian dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, have been brought back into domestic law enforcement because the local police forces are either incapable or too corrupt to deal with the threat from drug traffi cking and its associated violence. As the focus of U.S. drug strategies shift, so does drug production and traffi cking, bringing the scourge of the drug trade to new parts of the hemisphere. Most decisions on national drug policies in Latin America are made under heavy U.S. pressure for stronger measures. This one-size-fi ts-all approach to drug strategy prevents countries from responding to local concerns and stifl es creative approaches. Our study pointed to two major conclusions: fi rst, the supply-reduction model simply does not work; and second, this model has sparked confl ict, fueled human rights violations, and undermined democracy in countries where drugs are produced and traffi cked. These lessons should guide a new international drug control policy—one that gets at the roots of the drug problem by channeling more resources to treatment and education in the United States and to economic development in Latin America while continuing to go after the transnational criminal organizations that engage in larger-scale traffi cking of drugs, arms, and migrants, and then help foment corruption and economic distortions through money-laundering schemes and the strategic use of their assets.We are not questioning the commitment or the integrity of those who work tirelessly, against daunting odds, to keep drugs off America’s streets. We are not saying that fi ghting drugs is impossible and that we should just give up. On the contrary—we are saying that we can do better. More effective and humane approaches to the enormous problems of drug traffi cking and illicit drug use do exist. But achieving success will require an honest assessment of whether or not we are moving closer to our goals—and if not, what we need to be doing differently. We must go beyond the mentality of fear shared by U.S. policymakers and the public at large that has made any challenges to current drug policy taboo. No perfect solutions exist. It is unlikely that illicit drug use can be eliminated in the foreseeable future, or that transnational crimes like drug traffi cking can be completely stamped out. But if we can open up a debate, evaluate the problems and the range of possible strategies to confront them, and then implement the policies either proven or showing the most promise to be effective, we can meet our fundamental goal of reducing drug abuse in the United States. Along the way, we will ensure that in Latin America, U.S. drug control policies do not continue to violate human rights and civil liberties, spark social upheaval, and undermine democracy. What follows are WOLA’s main concerns, arguments, and policy recommendations. We hope that they provide new perspectives to our readers for thinking constructively and creatively about how to confront the extremely