END FAILED NARCOTICS POLICY

U.S. President George W. Bush has promised Mexican President Vicente Fox to
lobby Congress to permanently exempt his country from obtaining drug
certification-- as he should. Certification has become an annual ritual
that, by all accounts, does more harm than good, both within the United
States and abroad.

It should be abolished, not just for Mexico, but for all countries.

Congress since 1986 has required the president to rate countries based on
their efforts to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. A country
that fails to obtain the presidential seal of approval -- to be certified
- -- faces a loss of U.S. aid and the imposition of trade sanctions, which
include increased duties on exports and limits on air traffic. (President
Bush has until March 1 to send his list of certified countries to Congress.)

The dire consequences that de-certification brings has increased foreign
cooperation with U.S. narcotics fighting efforts. Countries such as
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia have stepped up efforts to eradicate drug crops
and arrest drug traffickers.

But none of this has diminished the supply nor discouraged the use of hard
drugs in this nation. Cocaine and heroin are being sold in record
quantities on the streets, so much so that their prices have sharply
plummeted in recent years.

Nor is this hard to understand. Authors Eva Bertram and Kenneth Sharpe
argue that the drug war is making the problem it was supposed to solve
worse because it attacks the wrong enemy.

The real enemies, they note in their book, Drug War Politics: The Price of
Denial, are not the peasants or low-level dealers -- the main targets of
law enforcement officials. Rather, the enemy is the market for a product
that is easy to produce, in great demand and highly lucrative.

Cracking down on drug traders inflates the black-market profits from the
product, Bertram and Sharpe note. This, in turn, provides an incentive for
new drug suppliers to enter the market and bring prices down. "So the stick
(law enforcement) that is intended to discourage black marketeers
ironically creates the carrot (enormous profits) that encourages them."

But if drug certification has not aided U.S. efforts to keep drugs out, it
has proved downright pernicious from the standpoint of Latin American
countries.

For example, to obtain certification, Mexico replaced its civilian police
with the military to assist in its anti-drug efforts. But the profits in
the business are high enough that even high-ranking military officials are
susceptible to bribes. Meanwhile, the flow of drugs from Mexico to the
United States continues.

The corrupting of an enforcement agency that is outside of civilian control
is not something that bodes well for Mexican democracy or hemispheric
stability.

Mexico's story is repeated throughout Latin America. Drug certification is
not accomplishing its mission. It should be dropped and new methods
considered for ending the market for Latin American narcotics.

The Issue

Should Congress end its rule that foreign countries must be certified as
fighting drug trafficking?