A recently released report from the International Drug Policy Consortium just concluded that the "War on Drugs" is a massive failure. The United Nations' call to dismantle the international illegal drug trade by 2019 has gone nowhere, and in fact, it appears that things are worse now than ever before. As the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) contends, the "war" has had virtually zero impact on the availability of illegal drugs worldwide, and has been detrimental to human rights, health and safety.
Some of the biggest players in the rise of illicit drugs in the United States include open borders and sanctuary city policies. Even the DEA admits that fentanyl (an extremely potent and lethal opioid drug) from China is smuggled into the United States through the Mexican border. And yet, the radical Left says that even mentioning the fact that bad things are often trafficked into the U.S. through Mexico is "racist," and anyone who wants to secure the border for national security reasons is a Nazi, a fascist, or a xenophobe. It is no wonder that this "war" has gone nowhere.
The "War on Drugs" fails
As data from the IDPC report show, drug-related deaths have increased by a staggering 145 percent over the course of the last decade. In 2017, there were over 71,000 overdose deaths -- and that's just in the United States. Many thousands of people have been executed for drug-related offenses internationally, as well.
In a statement, Ann Fordham, the Executive Director of IDPC, commented, "This report is another nail in the coffin for the war on drugs."
“The fact that governments and the U.N. do not see fit to properly evaluate the disastrous impact of the last ten years of drug policy is depressingly unsurprising," Fordham added.
The report notes that illegal drug use has led to mass incarcerations, with an estimated 1-in-5 prisoners locked up for drug-related offenses. A majority of these charges are related to possession for personal use. Whether or not possession in and of itself ought to be a crime is a hotly debated topic, but the impact remains clear: People are suffering, and drugs are increasingly rampant in our society regardless of the government's efforts.
Open borders equal total mayhem
Writing for Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz contends that Obama's legacy of open borders and sanctuary cities has directly contributed to a rising drug problem. As stated above by the IDPC, drug-related deaths surged during the last ten years -- eight of which include Obama's presidency.
The two years with the biggest surge in heroin seizures at the border, by far, were 2014 and 2015, the years with the largest surge of Central Americans who came because of the promise of DACA. The epidemic-level surge in heroin and fentanyl unmistakably coincided with Obama’s shutdown of immigration enforcement between 2010 and 2013. The promise of Obama’s amnesty resulted in the surge in young male drug mules from Central America, the enriching of the drug cartels who control the smuggling routes, the growth of MS-13 drug distributors, and the poisoning of our people.
He contends further that the connection between drugs and sanctuary cities is impossible to ignore: More people crossing the border means more opportunities for drug cartels to turn people into drug mules. While open borders are problem enough, the lure of sanctuary cities is especially magnetic for this kind of set-up.
Recall the precedent that was set in the murder of Kate Steinle: Jose Garcia Zarate, Steinle's killer, had been deported five times. He had seven felonies on his criminal record, including felony drug charges. He killed Kate Steinle with a gun stolen from a federal officer. And the good progressives of California saw fit to not only let this man walk the streets by releasing him from jail before the murder, but they acquitted him of all charges afterwards.
The real question is why wouldn't drug cartels want to do business in the U.S.? They literally get away with murder here.
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