It may be in vogue for bloggers to find reasons to characterize the policies espoused by President George Bush as ill-informed. Noting that this blog is not at all about contending on ideological matters and even less so about name calling, I have been drawn to comment on the Merida Initiative carried in this piece by BBC News.
To the extent that I can tell, this is definitely an ill-advised effort to expand and militarize the failed and failing war on drugs. Presidents George Bush and Calderon are both quite enthusiastic about the plan to reduce the amount of cocaine passing through from Mexico into the US. Who needs evidence that the similar effort in Colombia only led to loss of lives without significantly crippling the the so-called drug cartels?
I have commented on several blog posts including this one, under this same label that this is a waste of money. I state again: taxation, legalization and treatment for addicts is the way. I ask how much treatment US$ 1.4 billion over two years would buy and I conclude that it would achieve more than a militarization of the sale of the undesired narcotics. Putting more effort on flawed thinking does not make it work.
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