Pubdate: Mon, 28 Apr 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Donald MacPherson
Page: A13
Cited: Canadian Drug Policy Coalition: http://drugpolicy.ca/

A GIFT TO THE DRUG KINGPINS

We know the stories. Hockey bags that go south full of B.C. bud and
return full of Latin American cocaine. Elaborate underground tunnels
at both the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders. Canadian mobsters
being gunned down in Mexican resort towns. Unlikely Mennonite drug
mules crossing North America's borders with illicit packages concealed
in gas tanks and old farm equipment.

It's easy to think it's always been this way, but the reality is we
can thank the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for much of
this activity. So this year, while business leaders and politicians
fete the 20th anniversary of NAFTA, drug runners and cartels will be
doing the same.

It shouldn't come as a surprise. Free traders wax poetically about the
interconnected, globalized economy, and the whole point of NAFTA was
to strengthen the economic integration of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico
by reducing trade barriers.

How's this for economic integration, then? Access to legal, regulated
medical marijuana in Canada and the U.S. has reduced black market
demand across the continent. This phenomenon will become more
pronounced with the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in
Colorado and Washington, and more states to come. It's worth noting
too that concerns over drug gangs generally, but Canadian gangs in
particular, were a key reason Washington voters supported legalization
in that state. Regardless, marijuana farmers in Mexico have responded
to decreased black market demand by shifting to poppy cultivation.
This has resulted in a surge of cheap heroin availability at a time
when heroin use is increasing in both the U.S. and Canada.

Yet despite the predictability of this kind of domino effect in a
continental economy, then-U.S. president Bill Clinton forbade U.S.
negotiators from discussing the illegal drug trade in NAFTA talks.
Years later, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official Phil Jordan
revealed: "We were prohibited from discussing the effects of NAFTA as
it related to narcotics trafficking, yes." As a result, "For the
godfathers of the drug trade in Colombia and Mexico, this was a deal
made in narco heaven."

Indeed. NAFTA brought a proliferation of maquiladoras - companies
operating in duty-free free-trade zones - to the north of Mexico and a
massive increase in cross-border commercial traffic. In other words,
freer movement of goods in a continent that represents "the world's
largest illicit drug market" according to the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime. NAFTA also brought an influx of cheap, subsidized U.S. crops -
including corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice - resulting in the
collapse of northern Mexico's agricultural sector. Some farmers
shifted to marijuana, which is 1,000 times more lucrative than corn,
pound for pound. The rest were in need of work.

Basically, NAFTA helped create ideal conditions for the rise of a
lucrative cross-border drug and gun trade.

Governments responded by escalating the war on drugs, with devastating
impacts on citizens and their communities throughout North America. An
estimated 100,000 Mexicans have died or disappeared in drug-related
violence, and the U.S. has the highest prison population in the world
with over two million citizens behind bars. Of these, roughly 500,000
Americans are incarcerated on any given night for a drug law
violation. At the same time, death from overdose and HIV/ AIDS among
injection drug users has taken thousands of lives in the U.S. and
Canada. Add to all of that the pain of the families of those directly
affected and the communities that have suffered these losses.

Twenty years after NAFTA's signing, it's time to finally acknowledge
the drug market is a part of our integrated economy. In turn, we need
to negotiate a modern, 21st century drug policy that addresses the
health and safety issues across the region and undermines the illegal
profiteers.

The good news is, there's cause for optimism. The Organization of
American States in particular is providing refreshing leadership
through member states like Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala calling for
a discussion about alternative approaches to the enforcement-heavy war
on drugs. And some jurisdictions are implementing bold new paradigms
on their own. Similar to the moves in Colorado and Washington, Uruguay
became the first country in the world to authorize a legal, regulated
market for adult cannabis use.

The current overemphasis on criminal justice approaches to drug
control in North America has sidelined a variety of programs that can
minimize the harms related to the drug trade and substance use,
including public health promotion and prevention programs. It has also
curbed economic and social advancement for drug-producing countries.

A North American Drug Policy Agreement could serve as a powerful
statement of shared responsibility in addressing the trans-national
drug problem. Such an agreement should include provisions for the
consuming countries (U.S. and Canada) to reduce demand through social
development and improved access to health responses. But it should
also map out a legal, regulatory control framework for drugs that are
currently illicit. This would reduce the violence within the drug
trade, and all of the other prohibition-related harms that are far
more destructive to communities and countries than substance use itself.

Yes, it would mark a departure from 40 years of restrictive,
prohibitionist policies, but as Stephen Harper himself has noted, "the
current approach is not working." It's time to try something else.

Donald MacPherson is executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy 
Coalition.
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MAP posted-by: Matt