Drug War Pathologies: Embedded Corporatism and U.S. Drug Enforcement in the Americas by Horace A. Bartilow (review)

Horace Bartilow examines the long running US war on drugs, a campaign to combat the illegal drug trade. To prosecute that war over the past half century, the United States has enacted laws making the use, sale, and distribution of certain mind-altering drugs illegal; provided economic assistance to cooperating governments; and even sent armed troops to other countries. The book is timely, since the wisdom of the drug war is now being questioned more than ever. Many US states have recently even legalized the production and distribution of marijuana. At the time of this writing, the US federal government has not changed its position in favor of prohibition.

Bartilow's book integrates huge amounts of information into an argument that challenges mainstream ideas about the connection between the policies of the US military and the preferences of US-based corporations. It is essential reading for scholars interested in the study of the war on drugs, transnational organized crime, the influence of corporations over public policies, and US foreign policy toward Latin America.

The author adds his voice to the growing consensus in the literature that the drug war has done great harm. Bartilow argues that the drug war has mostly hurt low income people in the United States.His use of the word, "pathology," in the title appropriately summarizes his view that the war on drugs is a "disease," a cancer on American society and on other societies where the war is waged. According to his account, in Latin America the war on drugs has fueled the development of organized crime, enabled violent repression of human rights, undermined democracy, exacerbated economic in-equalities, and encouraged government corruption.

The book is well organized and, except for a few chapters that focus one econometric tests, is written at a level appropriate for an audience of upper-level undergraduate college students. Most chapters of this book would be good choices to include in syllabi for college courses focusing on issues of social justice and human rights. The methodology the author used to collect his evidence was eclectic. He combined case study analyses of two of the largest US drug initiatives in the developing world, econometric data analysis, and in-depth analysis of recently declassified documents. It is an excellent example of the value of a mixed method approach.

Most readers will come to the topic with strong opinions, and they will benefit from the author's expertise and unique perspective. He was born and spent his early years in Jamaica, so he was a firsthand witness to some of the effects of the war on drugs on the domestic politics and policies of his own country. He spent years developing his ideas and gathering the relevant evidence. He has listened to other arguments and takes them seriously throughout the book and has honestly and fairly presented the evidence.

I am more convinced than before about the existence and seriousness of the disease Bartilow identifies, but I still have questions about why the drug war began, why it continues, and what should be done. One of the questions I would address with my students is whether we should accept the author's theory of embedded corporatism to explain why the war on drugs started and why it continues. Embedded corporatism refers to the large role that corporations play in US policymaking which results in public policies shaped by US-based corporations for the benefit of US corporations.

Do corporations intend to do harm?On this question the author is conflicted. In his dominant narrative, corporations are not evil. They are pursuing profits and are not violating any laws. Corporate leaders are represented by the author as indifferent to the harm they cause at home or abroad. Milton Friedman would have called their behavior ethical.

Many mainstream analyses of US public policymaking would describe the creation of drug war policies as the...