The Deadly War On Drugs, Waged By Your Local SWAT Team

The New York Times recently delivered an extraordinary investigative journalism report depicting how our country’s continued romance with waging war on drugs has taken on a local and chilling nature.

The “War on Drugs” in this country dates back to Richard Nixon, and then was amplified by Ronald Reagan. The utter failure for decades of border interdiction and crop eradication coupled with alienating neighborhoods with ‘buy and bust’ tactics (which have had no more of a momentary effect and have led to more juveniles being ‘employed’ in drug dealing to elude jail sentences) has had next to no impact in foregoing these wasteful and hugely expensive efforts, which of course disproportionately affect those living in poverty and people of color. These are supply-side drug control efforts, which endure despite their damage and profound inutility.

Instead, ‘Gung Ho!’ has trumped a host of effective prevention and treatment strategies for drug use and dependence. The militant approach to limiting supplies of illegal drugs is estimated to cost $100 billion/year globally, one fifth of that in the United States (see Richard Branson’s Ending The War On Drugs, Virgin Books, London, 2016). Demand side approaches, of reducing use and thus purchases, have been lost in the fog of war.

And as we witness a mounting ethos of military ‘solutions’ to social problems emanating today from Washington, D.C., we are likely to see even more useless and dangerous pursuits ahead, not just abroad but in your neighborhood and mine.

The Times reported that from 2010 - 2016 there were at least 81 civilians and 13 law enforcement officers who died in what are called “dynamic entry”, “no knock” raids. Reportedly, as well, scores of people, civilians and officers, were wounded. So many of these assaults, which rival counter-terror raids in their violence, have resulted in avoidable casualties and deaths, widespread trauma among those raided – as well as neighbors and law enforcement alike, extensive property damage, and a spate of legal settlements costing many millions of taxpayer dollars.

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