Check out SFL’s campaign to end the War on Drugs at endthedrugwar.org.
It’s all too easy to see the “War on Drugs” as merely metaphor or hyperbole devised by melodramatic politicians, yet the United States government’s crusade against the production, distribution, and use of particular substances has escalated to the level of any other war. The United States government directly backs military and police forces that kill and torture in the name of fighting the drug trade. In the United States, the drug war has provided an excuse to arm police with military weaponry and encourages them to wield these weapons of war against non-violent offenders. The drug war is more than a metaphor, it entails the U.S. government conducting wars at home and abroad.
A particularly appalling example of how the Drug War has operated like other imperialist wars can be seen in the U.S. operation known as “Plan Colombia.” Since the 1990’s, the Colombian government has received exorbitant U.S. military aid, ostensibly to combat drug trafficking. In 2000, Noam Chomsky argued that this aid was used to finance massive human rights violations by the Colombian government and associated paramilitary groups, writing:
“Each year, some 300,000 new refugees are driven from their homes, with a death toll of about 3,000 and many horrible massacres. The great majority of atrocities are attributed to paramilitary forces. These are closely linked to the military, as documented in considerable and shocking detail once again in February 2000 by Human Rights Watch, and in April 2000 by a UN study which reported that the Colombian security forces that are to be greatly strengthened by the Colombia Plan maintain an intimate relationship with death squads, organize paramilitary forces, and either participate in their massacres directly or, by failing to take action, have ‘undoubtedly enabled the paramilitary groups to achieve their exterminating objectives.'”
These are outright war crimes, enabled and financed in the name of stopping drugs.
America’s drug war wreaks similar havoc in Mexico. The U.S. government directly backs Mexican military and police forces to combat the drug trade. These U.S. backed forces engage in brutal violence. A 2011 report by Human Rights Watch “found evidence that strongly suggests the participation of security forces in more than 170 cases of torture, 39 “disappearances,” and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calderón took office in December 2006.”
This drug war violence throughout Latin America displaces many people from their homes, including children. Many of the child migrants who recently entered the US are fleeing drug war violence. A letter signed by Students For Liberty and a litany of civil rights, immigration, criminal justice, racial justice, human rights, libertarian and religious organizations notes that:
“In Latin America, the core of this crisis can be directly linked to the longstanding drug war the United States has waged in the region. The U.S.’s militarization campaign to combat drug trafficking has resulted in the destabilization of major parts of Central America, increased murder rates, and mass disappearances. Half of the 10 cities with the highest homicide rates in the world are found in the small region of Central America. This epidemic of violence destroys lives and diminishes opportunities for creating viable livelihoods, leaving children in these countries with little choice but to embark on the treacherous journey to the U.S. in search of refuge and safety.”
The drug war operates like any other military imperialism, and the violence it’s imposing on Latin America is forcing children to become refugees.
America’s drug war is obviously imperialistic when it involves state financed violence abroad, but it also brings military power and tactics home to American streets. For example, police militarization is fueled by the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which “has provided $4.3 billion in free military equipment to local police.” This military equipment is largely used to build paramilitary SWAT teams, and a recent report from the ACLU finds that 62% of SWAT raids targeted drugs.
The extraordinarily broad surveillance powers the US government has claimed for its “War on Terror” are also largely used to fight the war on drugs. The PATRIOT Act allows the government to conduct “sneak and peek” searches, searching a person’s property without notifying them. In 2011, the ACLU reported that less than 1% of these searches were used for terrorism cases. The ACLU reported that, “This abusive “anti-terrorism tool” is really being used to fight the war on drugs (76 percent) and to investigate other crimes that have nothing to do with protecting national security.”
In their quest to control what individuals put in their bodies, the United States government has waged an outright war on innocent people around the world. The drug war means brutal violence around the world, militarized police at home, and the shredding of civil liberties. For these reasons and more, Students For Liberty is actively working to end the drug war. To learn more about our End the Drug War campaign, click here.