Experts Say US-Mexico Drug War Has Failed, Alternatives Must Be Found Alberto Tomas Halpern - Newspaper Tree
go to original November 13, 2013

Mexican journalist Anabel Hernandez visited UTEP to discuss drug policy in Mexico. Hernandez said current policies have led to government corruption and that Mexico's government is closely linked to drug cartels. (Alberto Tomas Halpern/Newspaper Tree)

A symposium on U.S.-Mexico drug policy held at the University of Texas at El Paso this week, brought together journalists, professors, a former Drug Enforcement Agency officer and a congressman, all of whom agreed on one conclusion: the U.S. and Mexican governments’ war on drugs has failed.

The group of thinkers and policymakers said that efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments over the past 40 years have done little to combat transnational drug cartels; have wasted billions of dollars in public money; and have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Congressman Beto O’Rourke said he didn’t often think about the drug war until violence in neighboring Juarez skyrocketed in 2008 and 2009, when he served on El Paso’s city council.

“That really changed for me,” O’Rourke said, adding, “We needed to respond to it.”

O’Rourke said that after having thoughtful community discussions and researching the drug war, he came to an inescapable conclusion.

“This war on drugs is irrational in that it is not meeting any of the goals that were laid out at the outset. It is fiscally irresponsible - you spent $1 trillion of our hard-earned tax payer money to prosecute this war - it has met none of its aims. And it’s immoral,” O’Rourke said.

Read the rest at Newspaper Tree

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!