While Colombian and Mexican cartels are constantly in the news, and Bolivian coca farmers or Caribbean traffickers are unrelentingly excoriated by the US media, very little is said or done about the millions of Americans who buy drugs every day, or about the thousands of individuals who import, ship, resell, cut and distribute narcotics to their end users. Last but not least, withdrawal of US support and material aid weakens the leadership in those countries where the fight against drug trafficking has already significantly eroded the effectiveness of government and law-enforcement institutions, and where determined action, commitment and political stamina are most necessary. What is clearly unacceptable is for the United States to put the burden of blame for its ever-increasing appetite for drugs solely on the producing and transit countries, especially those in Latin America. Equally inadmissible is to sweep under the rug the fact that were it not for America's insatiable desire to smoke, inject or inhale enormous varieties of drugs, the major incentive for producing, shipping and selling them would disappear. It is time for all of us to face facts.
Drugs are a world wide issue, one that requires a multilateral response.
Subjecting the international effort to fight drug trafficking and money laundering to narrow political interests, or addressing individual elements of the equation without taking others into account, will never solve the problem. Mexico, a country seriously affected by the use of its territory as a corridor for drugs destined for its northern neighbour, has proposed a global summit meeting of world leaders to tackle the issue and seek solutions. But these will materialise only when each nation shoulders its full responsibilities and discards self-serving policies that do nothing to attack the underlying causes of the phenomenon. Drug traffickers are an international security threat and must be dealt with accordingly. Let's get on with the job and get rid of ineffective finger-pointing.