Pubdate: Fri, 28 Feb 2014
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2014 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Hannah Hetzer
Note: Hannah Hetzer is policy manager of the Americas at the Drug
Policy Alliance.

BUSTING 'EL CHAPO' ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING

Another Crime Boss in Jail Won't Matter

On Saturday, the world's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" 
Guzman Loera, was captured in the Mexican city of Mazatlan, ending a 
13-year search that began when he escaped from prison in a laundry basket.

But how much will this arrest really accomplish? If history is any 
guide, not much. The capture of one leader from one cartel will not 
decrease drug use in the United States, the world's biggest drug 
consuming nation.

In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo on drug 
trafficking that concluded, "There is no perceptible pattern" 
connecting arrests of drug bosses and decreases in drug seizures. 
Forty years of the war on drugs have not led to a decrease in drug 
consumption or supply on a global scale, yet it has led to the 
proliferation of cartels and crime.

It is also a mistake to believe that the capture of Guzman will lead 
to a decrease in violence. Experience shows it might result in 
increased violence in the short term, as fighting occurs within the 
cartel to assume the top position and as other cartels move in on 
Sinaloa cartel territory.

Nor will Guzman's arrest dismantle drug trafficking networks. The 
Sinaloa cartel is one of many, and it is unlikely to be dependent on 
Guzman for longevity. High profile captures like this go back many 
decades; think of Pablo Escobar or Guzman's own mentor, Miguel Angel 
Felix Gallardo. Such arrests never fundamentally alter the situation.

As long as there is an illicit market for drugs, there will be 
cartels to supply it. Ultimately, we need to look for new ways to 
tackle organized crime, with moves such as legal regulation, being 
spearheaded by Uruguay in South America, and in the USA by Washington 
state and Colorado.

In recent years, debate and political will for an overhaul in drug 
policy has gained momentum in the U.S., Latin America and elsewhere. 
In 2011, Kofi Annan, Paul Volcker and Richard Branson joined former 
presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria of 
Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and other members of the 
Global Commission on Drug Policy in saying the time had come to 
"break the taboo"on exploring alternatives to the war on drugs and to 
"encourage experimentation by governments with models of legal 
regulation of drugs." More recently, Presidents Juan Manuel Santos of 
Colombia and Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala have joined calls for reform.

Eighty years after the end of Prohibition, we no longer have kingpins 
like Al Capone running the booze market. As we did with alcohol, we 
need to learn from the failures of modern-day prohibition and try new 
approaches that depart from the repressive, militarized and punitive 
methods of the past.

Though fighting organized crime is important, without reducing the 
illicit market for drugs, it will not improve the safety of Mexicans 
or Americans.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom