The war on drugs breeds crafty traffickers

It is as though we have had a decades-long policy of selectively breeding supertraffickers and ensuring the “survival of the fittest”
The New York Times (US)
Monday, March 26, 2018

Politicians often escalate drug war rhetoric to show voters that they are doing something. But it is rare to ignore generations of lessons as President Trump did earlier this month when he announced his support for the execution of drug traffickers. This idea is insane. But the war on drugs has never made any sense to begin with. Executing a few individual smugglers will do little to stop others because there is no high command of the international drug trade to target, no generals who can order a coordinated surrender of farmers, traffickers, money launderers, dealers or users. The Donald Trump of 2018 should take a lesson from the Donald Trump of 1990 when he said: “We are losing badly the war on drugs. You have to legalize drugs to win that war.”