Anti-Drug Policies in Colombia: Successes, Failures, and Wrong Turns eds. by Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía (review)

This English translation of a book, published originally in Spanish in Bogotá in 2011, offers comprehensive insight into the history and other facets of Colombia's on-going struggle against the drug trade. Beginning with a preface by former president César Gaviría Trujillo, the volume consists of fifteen chapters, written by twenty-four authors, that are organized into the following five sections: "Dimensions of the Drug Problem in Colombia: Production, Trafficking, and Consumption;" "Policies for the Reduction of Supply and Demand;" "International Relations and Anti-Drug Policies in Colombia;" "Legal and Institutional Aspects of the War on Drugs;" and "Institutions and Narcotic Trafficking."

Although each chapter addresses Colombia's drug problem from a different angle, the authors all seem to share two assumptions: first, that the so-called "war on drugs," inaugurated by President Richard Nixon forty years ago, is a failed policy; and second, that when one adds up the thousands of lives that have been lost and the impact of the policy on its democratic institutions, Colombia, more than any other country in the world, has paid the highest cost in attempting to meet its demands. Likewise, they appear to agree with the position stated by President Gaviria that "legalization" will not solve the problem, and that in the future, the most important approach is to recognize that the consumption of drugs is not a crime but a health problem and should be treated as such.

Editors Gaviria and Mejía underscore that these investigations confirm that the debate over the effectiveness and high cost of the current prohibitionist regime is ongoing. While each chapter offers some specific suggestions for developing a more effective response to the problem, there are six general recommendations that can be derived from the book as a whole. First: the formulation of anti-drug policies should be based on available information about what works, what does not work, and at what cost. Second: Colombia's existing anti-drug policies suffer from a lack of coordination, and it is important that the government create an independent institution enabled to design and coordinate anti-drug policies based on available scientific evidence. Third: interdiction should replace inefficient and costly aerial spraying and manual eradication of coca and marijuana because it will have a greater impact on the profitability of the illegal industry. Fourth: because drug consumption in Colombia has grown rapidly, the government as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) must play a leading role in designing treatment and prevention policies. Fifth: Colombia's government should use its hard-won experience to promote a global dialogue about anti-drug policies and to seek new strategic allies in this enterprise. Finally, Colombia's government should implement effective treatment and prevention policies that reduce the demand for drugs. Anti-drug policies should aim at reducing the profits associated with the production and sale of illegal drugs. Such strategies should include reducing the profit margins of narcotics trafficking by adopting mechanisms that make money laundering more difficult and providing judicial bodies with adequate resources to engage in a large-scale fight against the crimes associated with narcotics trafficking.

The careful marshalling of facts and the extensive bibliography that follows each chapter reinforce the value of this volume as a basic reference work for political scientists and historians involved in any aspect of the impact of drugs on Colombia over the last fifty years. It can only be hoped that the publication of this information will also encourage serious public debate within the United States over its current anti-drug policy and sparked the adoption of corrective measures that will effectively alleviate a scourge that continues to wreak havoc on governments and peoples throughout the world.