Surgical Strikes in the Drug Wars

Smarter Policies for Both Sides of the Border

By Mark Kleiman, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90, No. 5.

More than a thousand people die each month in drug-dealing violence in Mexico, and the toll has been rising. In some parts of the country, the police find themselves outgunned by drug trackers and must rely on the armed forces. Meanwhile, the United States suªers from the widespread abuse of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and cannabis; violence and disorder surrounding retail drug markets; property theft and violent crime committed by drug abusers; and mass incarceration, including half a million people behind bars for drug oªenses and at least as many for crimes committed for money to buy drugs. Current policies, clearly, have unsatisfactory results. But what is to replace them? Neither of the standard alternatives—a more vigorous pursuit of current antidrug eªorts or a system of legal availability for currently proscribed drugs—oªers much hope. Instead, it is time for Mexico and the United States to consider a set of less conventional approaches.