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Report of the meeting with David W. Murray

6 Nov 2018

Within the framework of the activities of the Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Public Service, we had the opportunity to receive David W. Murray, co-director of the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research at Hudson Institute, who explained the US approach in drugs traffic.

 

 

Mr Murray began his dissertation analyzing the drug policies that have been applied by different administrations during the last years, displaying that U.S. support for the drug control and anti-trafficking treaties has been uneven.

 

 

Undoubtedly, the drugs control in the United States is one of the main open fronts of the government: Without going any further, in 2017 more than 70,000 Americans died due to the use of cocaine, heroin or marijuana. With this scenario, the main issue is that every former president implemented their own policies and measures, starting the project all over again, instead of giving continuity to a common project in order to produce remarkable results.

 

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Murray pointed out that information is a key element to develop and establish efficient drug policies, since in the United States of America (USA) large amounts of public money is invested inefficiently. He also mentioned that it is extremely laborious to coordinate this type of policies, since each institution has its own objectives and interests, and that makes it tough to pursue a common goal. Even so, since the Central Agency controls the budgets of each state in drug control, it seems that this problem has begun to be diluted.

 

 

Regarding the recent legalization of marijuana in several USA states, according to his point of view, it seems not to be the proper way to come up with a solution. The consequences of drug legalization or decriminalization are damaging for nations that have been beguiled by the prospects of government sanctioned drug distribution, or promises of tax revenue. Experience has shown that where drugs are legalized, not only does drug use increase sharply, but violent criminal black markets continue to operate.

 

 

Our guest also mentioned the ineffectiveness of some treatments followed by the USA and the Netherlands, with the objective of rehabilitating drug addicts. Instead of a fresh start and freedom, these programs serve up a dependent, even subjugated, client, attached in near perpetuity, receiving authorized opiates as continuous treatment, becoming thereby eligible for “recovery services” benefits. This portrait is not a measure of liberation from addiction, but rather constitutes an expanded sense of dependency. This kind of policy is not intended to stop the current situation and it will only destroy more lives. These responses do not address the causes, which are found in the increasing supply, availability, and acceptability of these narcotics in our communities.

 

David W. Murray

 

 

He stressed that it is urgent to build an international regime to regulate this situation, since nations cannot face a global challenge of these dimensions alone. In drug-producing countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela or Afghanistan, traffickers provide weapons, funding, and other material support to the insurgency in exchange for the protection of drug trade routes, cultivation fields, laboratories, and trafficking organizations…. It generates revenue by taxing drugs trafficked through areas they control… the narcotics trade undermines governance and rule of law throughout the country.

 

 

In short, by tolerating the drugs market, it’s impossible to achieve American interests and impossible for the drug-producing countries to build something other than a state in the grip of narcoterrorists. 

 

 

And what is even more relevant, the population needs to be protected from the terrorists, the drug lords, and the corrupt officials that force cultivation.

 

 

Priority must be given to an international agreement to solve this global threat, since the best way to prevent is to make access to drug use difficult. There is an urgent need for an international response to the current situation, and it should be comprehensive across drug threats, persistent across political administrations, and a policy priority for public health as well as criminal justice and national security concerns.

 

 

How long before someone in the international community confronts the real causes? Until they do, citizens from all over the world will continue to pay a deadly price.

 

 

 

By Mariona Espín Onieva

Student of the Master in Diplomacy and International Public Service

 

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