Drug War American Style

This collection of scholarly essays discusses the internationalization of American drug policy from a variety of perspectives and features articles on Hong Kong, Britain, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Latin America, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

This collection of scholarly essays discusses the internationalization of American drug policy from a variety of perspectives and features articles on Hong Kong, Britain, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Latin America, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

This book provides the first multidisciplinary and nonpartisan analysis of how the United States should decide on the legal status of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. It draws on data about the experiences of Western European nations with less punitive drug policies as well as new analyses of America's experience with legal cocaine and heroin a century ago, and of America's efforts to regulate gambling, prostitution, alcohol and cigarettes. It offers projections on the likely consequences of a number of different legalization regimes and shows that the choice about how to regulate drugs involves complicated tradeoffs among goals and conflict among social groups. The book presents a sophisticated discussion of how society should deal with the uncertainty about the consequences of legal change. Finally, it explains, in terms of individual attitudes toward risk, why it is so difficult to accomplish substantial reform of drug policy in America.

A “well-researched, bitingly written account” of the massive failure of the war on drugs (Publishers Weekly). The war against drugs was supposed to make America better, right? It failed. Not only does the drug war fail to keep Americans from using drugs, but its crackdown tactics also produce bigger problems than it promises to solve. In this fearlessly audacious book, Joel Miller shows that drug prohibition creates tremendous amounts of crime and corruption, helps finance anti-American terrorists, makes a joke out of U.S. border security, chips away at constitutional liberties, militarizes law enforcement, and jails hundreds of thousands of Americans. And for what? A bigger, more intrusive government that cares less and less about individual rights. Told in a bold, uncompromising style, Miller’s book reveals the true and terrible nature of the war on drugs and also, just as importantly, informs readers about what they can do to kick the drug-war habit. “Miller nails it,” says Larry Elder, host of ABC Radio’s nationally syndicated Larry Elder Show and bestselling author. “He powerfully and persuasively articulates the folly, the harm and the unconstitutionality of our government’s War against Drugs.” And, says Judge Andrew P. Napolitano of Fox News, “If you are interested in our freedoms or fearful of the government destroying human lives and wasting tax dollars on another American Prohibition, read this book and send a copy to every lawmaker and judge you know.” If you want to understand the drug problem in America, you first need to know how the government is making it worse. Bad Trip is the place to start.

"Fifty years after President Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs," leading scholars examine how drug war policies contributed to the making of the carceral state, racial injustice, deviant globalization, regulatory disasters, and a massive underground economy; they also point the way forward to a more just and humane drug policy regime"--

A ground-level chronicle of the violent drug war in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico—with accounts from both traffickers and law enforcement, and “astute analysis” (The Americas). Thousands die in drug-related violence every year in Mexico. Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, adjacent to El Paso, Texas, has become the most violent city in the drug war. Much of the cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine consumed in the United States is imported across the Mexican border, making El Paso/Juárez one of the major drug-trafficking venues in the world. In this anthropological study of drug trafficking and anti-drug law enforcement efforts on the US–Mexico border, Howard Campbell uses an ethnographic perspective to chronicle the recent Mexican drug war, focusing especially on people and events in the El Paso/Juárez area. It is the first social science study of the violent drug war that is tearing Mexico apart. Based on deep access to the drug-smuggling world, this study presents the drug war through the words of direct participants. Half of the book consists of oral histories from drug traffickers, and the other half from law enforcement officials. There is much journalistic coverage of the drug war, but very seldom are the lived experiences of traffickers and “narcs” presented in such vivid detail. In addition to providing an up-close, personal view of this world, Campbell explains and analyzes the functioning of cartels, the corruption that facilitates trafficking, the strategies of smugglers and anti-narcotics officials, and the perilous culture of drug trafficking that Campbell refers to as the “Drug War Zone.” “This collection of oral histories of drug traffickers and counter-drug officials examines the border narco-world through the eyes of first-hand participants . . . An invaluable resource for anyone seeking a greater sociological understanding.” —Journal of Latin American Studies

A myth-busting, 100-year history of the Mexican drug trade that reveals how an industry founded by farmers and village healers became dominated by cartels and kingpins. The Mexican drug trade has inspired prejudiced narratives of a war between north and south, white and brown; between noble cops and vicious kingpins, corrupt politicians and powerful cartels. In this first comprehensive history of the trade, historian Benjamin T. Smith tells the real story of how and why this one-peaceful industry turned violent. He uncovers its origins and explains how this illicit business essentially built modern Mexico, affecting everything from agriculture to medicine to economics—and the country’s all-important relationship with the United States. Drawing on unprecedented archival research; leaked DEA, Mexican law enforcement, and cartel documents; and dozens of harrowing interviews, Smith tells a thrilling story brimming with vivid characters—from Ignacia “La Nacha” Jasso, “queen pin” of Ciudad Juárez, to Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, the crusading physician who argued that marijuana was harmless and tried to decriminalize morphine, to Harry Anslinger, the Machiavellian founder of the American Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who drummed up racist drug panics to increase his budget. Smith also profiles everyday agricultural workers, whose stories reveal both the economic benefits and the human cost of the trade. The Dope contains many surprising conclusions about drug use and the failure of drug enforcement, all backed by new research and data. Smith explains the complicated dynamics that drive the current drug war violence, probes the U.S.-backed policies that have inflamed the carnage, and explores corruption on both sides of the border. A dark morality tale about the American hunger for intoxication and the necessities of human survival, The Dope is essential for understanding the violence in the drug war and how decades-old myths shape Mexico in the American imagination today.

Examines how and why the US government went from regulating illicit drug traffic and consumption to declaring war on both.