U.S. ANTI-DRUG POLICIES OF SOUTH AMERICA

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U.S. ANTI-DRUG POLICIES OF SOUTH AMERICA

The 41st president, President George Herbert Walker Bush, and his administration were a major actor stakeholder in the nation's war on drugs in relation to South America (Duzan, 1990, p. 10). By concentrating the anti-drug effort in South America, the Bush Administration was able to persuade the American people that costly, unpleasant efforts to control consumption in the United States were unnecessary. Bush's administration was also able to avoid the spectacle of a heavy-handed governmental repression of marijuana producers in the United States; an action that could easily cause political trouble for the Administration. The facts are, however, that approximately four-fifths of the illicit drugs consumed in the United States is marijuana, and that about four-fifths of the marijuana consumed in the United States is grown in this country. Nevertheless, 70 percent of the anti-drug money spent by the United States government is directed toward foreign countries (Duzan, p. 10). In the early years of the Clinton Administration, President Clinton said that the United States government will begin to emphasize the reduction in American drug demand in governmental anti-drug efforts, as opposed to the Bush/ Reagan emphasis on the control of foreign supply. However, within those early years no significant change in the anti-drug funding ratios occurred.

Other major actors stakeholders in the United States government anti-drug effort in S

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"Peru." (1992, March 2). U.S. Department of State Dispatch, 3 178.

vendettas (Cornez, 1992, pp. 17-18). The 41st president, George Bush, used the drug war as a justification for the invasion of Panama, when the real reason for that action was to "punish an insubordinate dictator" (Cornez, p. 17). President Ronald Reagan, his successor President George Bush, and President Bill Clinton punished Cuba for being communist, while proclaiming that the Castro government is deeply involved in the drug trade (Cornez, p. 18). The way in which the American drug war is waged throughout Latin America causes many skeptics to believe that the real purpose of the American anti-drug efforts in this region is the perpetuation of United States colonialism (Cornez, p. 18). The United Nations reports that a total of 104 countries "are participating in the drug market as producers, consumers, transfer points, or money laundering sites" (Mora-Mass, 1992, pp. 18-19). Most of these countries are not treated by the United States the way in which this country treats the South American nations involved in the drug trade (Cornez, p. 18). At the San Antonio Drug Summit, however, President George Herbert Walker Bush said that everything "we do must conform to democratic principles. None of us wants a drug-free dictatorship . . . We are all committed to defending democracy and its principles as we defeat the scourge of drugs" (Bush, 1992, p. 146). The former president's words and the deeds of the United States government, however, do not always coincide in South America.

Political leaders in the United States have also used the

Corn, D. (1991, January 21). "Beltway Bandits." Nation, 252, 44.

Effects of Government Anti-Drug Policies

Duzan, M. J. (1990, October 26). "The Cocaine Crossfire." New Statesman & Society, 3, 10-12.

1929

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