Most governments, in turn, tend to concentrate their antidrug operations in sectors least likely to trigger a political backlash from drug interests. Once a modus vivendi takes hold, the drug problem becomes endemic. The short-term political peace that the politicians enjoy only allows drug interests to dig in for the long term. One of the basic tenets of U.S. government antidrug policy has been to expose and where possible prevent such capitulation by encouraging political will in the principal drug producing and transit countries. At the core of the struggle against the drug trade is a battle against corruption.
Drugs are primarily a means to make vast sums of money.
Gram for gram there is no more lucrative commodity than drugs. Substances that are relatively cheap to produce generate criminal revenues on a scale that has no historical precedent. In quantities of cocaine, that translates into approximately eight metric tons of cocaine. Large jets flying into Mexico have carried in as much or more in one shipment. With such resources at their command, large trafficking organizations have an almost unlimited capacity to corrupt.