U.S. ANTI-DRUG POLICIES IN SOUTH AMERICA
This research examines United States anti-drug policies, as those policies are applied to the countries of South America. Background information on the issue is provided in this introduc-tion. Following the introductory material, the actors with a stake in the issue are discussed, the effects of government anti-drug policies are reviewed, and a suggested solution to the issue is presented.
Americans who regularly consume illicit drugs number in the
millions (Flynn, 1993, p. 36). American demand for illicit drugs is the primary source of the international illicit drug problem. In spite of all the resources committed to the so-called drug war, the production of illicit drugs continues to increase, and the supply of illicit drugs available to American consumers continues to increase, in spite of governmental claims to the contrary (Flynn, 1993, p. 8). In the face of United States government policy to reduce the cultivation of illicit drugs in South America, the number of countries that grow, produce, and traffic in drugs has increased since the Cartagena drug summit (Gene, 1992, p. 16).
The Department of Defense in the United States is a
principal actor stakeholder in the nation's war on drugs in
relation to South America (Smolowe, 1990, p. 62). Through the war on drugs, the armed forces are being provided with a basis to continue to demand funds for equipment and personnel that would have otherwise been lost with the end of the Cold War.
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...