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Congress has released a sweeping report on drug policy in the Americas, laying out a long list of recommendations for curbing drug trafficking and addressing the public health issues created by drug consumption. The report provides a glimpse into what the fight against organized crime could look like during President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.
Published by the House’s Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission, the report argues for deep, often systematic changes to how the United States combats drug trafficking. It advocates for increased international coordination, a more holistic approach to policymaking, and a review of antiquated punishments for countries not doing enough to meet annual goals.
To be sure, there is ample room for improvement.
US security assistance to Latin America is under scrutiny. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Mexico, where the recent arrest on corruption charges of former Defense Minister General Salvador Cienfuegos heralded the near death of institutionalized security cooperation with America’s southern neighbor. The arrest engendered several weeks of well-worn variants of the storyline that the so-called “War on Drugs” has been an unmitigated failure.
However, the newly-released report of the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission, an in-depth look at US security assistance programs over the past two decades, offers plenty of reasons to question this hackneyed narrative. True, the report conveys all of the frustrations and shortcomings well known to any informed observer or policymaker. Yet its findings portray Mexico as a country committed to and moving forward with a number of critical reforms albeit highly unevenly and oft