War on Drugs

The Drug War between Mexico and US

Shelly Grant

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Abstract

Accompanying the rise of the War on Drugs in the United States has been an emergence of black market illicit drug sales.  These illegal markets have created a shadow industry of trafficking and violence.  These markets have extended beyond the US borders and have fostered instability in neighboring countries, most visibly in Mexico.  The Mexican border states have seen a boom in organized drug trafficking affiliated with existing gangs and emerging cartels.  While there is a general knowledge that US drug policy is flawed, the research in this paper will show where the failings are in US drug policy, how these failings affect relations on both sides of the border, and what improvements and amendments to the US drug policy can most fully address the current failings.  This paper will examine how domestic drug policies in the US, such as creating a "War on Drugs," have had unintended side effects including: the rise and strengthening of drug cartels in Mexican border states, militarization of cartels through easy gun sales on the US side of the border, increase in human trafficking from Mexico, and an overall destabilization along both sides of the Mexican-US border.

Keywords:  drug, war, policy, United States, US, Mexico, cartels, violence

The Drug War between Mexico and US

Marijuana has traveled on an unfortunate arc over American history.  From a favored ingredient in patented medicines in the 1800s, to a villainized drug in the early twentieth century, marijuana lost its prestige as it became affiliated with the Mexican immigrant labor force.  Media trends during the turn of the century indicate that the earliest marijuana laws were drafted as a way to dominate the immigrants (Goode, 2005).  As it fell out of favor, marijuana was portrayed as a catalyst for violence and aggression (Goode, 2005).  Ironically enough, it was not marijuana but the...