Saying No to Drug Aid

The LA Times ran an opinion piece Saturday from an Orange Country Judge and the former chairman of the LA Chamber of Commerce. The piece, which packs a lot of common sense into several hundred words, opens with the following:

The United States' so-called war on drugs brings to mind the old saying that if you find yourself trapped in a deep hole, stop digging. Yet, last week, the Senate approved an aid package to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400 million going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America.

The authors don't refer to the Mérida Initiative again, so who knows if they see it as another egregious example of drug war profligacy, or if it was just an easy opener to make the piece more timely. Regardless, opposing the Mérida Initiative simply because one is against the war on drugs seems like a bit of a cop out. For as long as prohibition is in place, the US has an obligation to do what it can to mitigate the negative effects of that policy. The US's firm-hand approach is fueling something very much like a war in Mexico, and has helped fund outlaw bands throughout Colombia and Central America. Holding up aid packages because one has a problem with drug prohibition is like force-feeding your kid an all-sugar diet merely because you think physical education class is stupid.