Drug Policies and the Politics of Drugs in the Americas ThiS is a FM Blank Page Beatriz Caiuby Labate • Clancy Cavnar • Thiago Rodrigues Editors Drug Policies and the Politics of Drugs in the Americas Editors Beatriz Caiuby Labate Clancy Cavnar CIDE Center for Economic Research San Francisco, California and Education USA Aguascalientes Mexico Thiago Rodrigues Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ISBN 978-3-319-29080-5 ISBN 978-3-319-29082-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-29082-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948206 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland Foreword: From Drug Prohibition to Reform The publication of Drug Policies and the Politics of Drugs in the Americas could not be timelier, as it coincides with an unprecedented debate on drug policy reform across the hemisphere. The book also fills a void in the literature, as scant academic work has been published in recent years on drug policy in the region. To my knowledge, it is also the first book in English to focus on both the evolution of the drug policy debate and the reform processes underway in some Latin American and Caribbean countries. The April 2012 Cartagena summit, in which the regions’ presidents tasked the Organization of American States (OAS) with analyzing present drug control poli- cies and exploring alternative approaches, launched a regional discussion of a topic long considered taboo. While the hemisphere remains divided on many drug policy- related issues, a consensus is emerging around the need to treat drug use as a public health—not criminal—issue; the urgent need to address the regions’ prison crisis by reducing the numbers of those incarcerated on low-level drug offenses; and the importance of giving countries the flexibility to experiment with policies most suited to their own national realities. The regional debate has spilled onto the world stage. As a result of a proposal by the governments of Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico, a special session of the UN General Assembly (UNGASS) on “the world drug problem” will be held in April 2016, providing an opportunity for the highest-level debate on the international drug control system in recent history. In short, Latin America is at the vanguard of the international drug policy debate. How it got there is due to a convergence of factors. The US government has long flexed its political, military, and economic muscle to dictate regional—if not global—drug policies, with a particularly strong impact on countries of historic US domination and those dependent on US economic support (Central America and the Andes). Even today, the Associated Press reports that an estimated 4,000 US troops are on the ground and agents from at least 10 US agencies are involved in drug control efforts across Latin America. And, while paling in comparison to the billions of dollars spent on Plan Colombia, a US government counter-drug aid package launched in that country in 1999, the Obama administration has asked the US Congress to fund a one billion dollar aid package for Central America to help v vi Foreword: From Drug Prohibition to Reform address the root causes of violence, drug trafficking, and the flow of migrants north. Yet, for the most part, Washington is no longer calling the shots when it comes to national and regional drug policies. This is due in part to the emergence in recent years of left-wing governments that have challenged US hegemony in its “backyard.” At the same time, sharply declining levels of US economic assistance and US policymakers’ preoccupation with foreign policy crisis in other parts of the world have contributed to declining US influence in the region. President Obama himself recognized this new reality at the April 2015 summit of hemispheric leaders in Panama, stating: “The days in which our agenda in this hemisphere so often presumed that the United States could meddle with impunity, those days are past.” Of course, with regard to drug policy, the US government also has a serious credibility problem. With four US states having implemented or in the process of implementing legal, regulated cannabis markets, the United States is now clearly out of compliance with the very interna- tional drug control conventions that it so carefully crafted. Another factor spurring the debate is that some countries—most notably, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Ecuador—have been willing to experiment with innovative, if not radical, reforms. Boldly challenging the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, Bolivia is the first country to denounce and return to the convention with a reservation allowing for licit coca use in that country. In his chapter on Bolivia, Thomas Grisaffi describes how “coca leaf has been used for millennia by indige- nous peoples in the Andean countries” and has social and cultural uses that, while rejected by the international drug control conventions, are now enshrined in the Bolivian constitution. Not long after Bolivia’s historic step, Uruguay became the first country in the world to create a legal, regulated cannabis market. Guillermo Garat describes the debate within Uruguay, the challenges in creating such a market, and the opportunity it offers, if implemented successfully, to present an alternative approach to regulating the world’s most consumed “illicit” substance. After several years of internal debate, Ecuador ultimately implemented a sweep- ing penal code reform that creates far greater proportionality in sentencing for drug offenses and attempts to clearly distinguish between consumers and traffickers. Ja´come and Alvarez Velasco explain how the “principle of favorability,” enshrined in the Ecuadorian justice system, allows for the new penal code to be applied retroactively. As a result, between August 2014, when the new penal code went into effect, and March 2015, more than 2300 people convicted on drug offenses were released from prison. The new Ecuadorian penal code provides a model for other countries seeking to reduce the incarceration rates of low-level drug offenders. Finally, a fundamental factor driving the regional drug policy debate is the high cost paid by Latin American countries for implementing policies dictated, at least initially, by Washington. Indeed, the region is significantly worse off than when US President Richard Nixon launched the “War on Drugs” over 40 years ago. Drug trafficking routes that used to be confined to strategic corridors now proliferate across the region, crisscrossing in every direction. With them come organized crime, corruption, and the erosion of democratic institutions. Of particular concern Foreword: From Drug Prohibition to Reform vii are the unacceptably high levels of violence in some countries. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), while Latin America holds 8 % of the world’s population, 42 % of the world’s homicides take place there. And, as the drug trade has expanded, so have drug markets and problematic drug use in countries with scant resources to invest in health care, let alone drug treatment programs. Punitive drug policies are the driving force behind the regions’ prison crisis. Excessively harsh sentencing policies, the adoption of mandatory minimums, and the expansion of conducts considered to be drug crimes have led to an explosion of people in jail on low-level drug offenses. As documented by the Collective for the Study of Drugs and the Law (Colectivo de Estudios Drogas y Derecho, CEDD), in many countries, the penalties for committing any drug-related crime are higher than for rape or murder. In Ecuador, prior to the adoption of its new penal code, the mandatory sentence for drug crimes was 12–25 years, while the maximum sentence for killing someone was 16 years. Hence, it was not uncommon to find low-level drug traffickers incarcerated with longer sentences than murderers. Numerous chapters of the book document how it is the most vulnerable sectors of society that bear the brunt of the punitive approach to drug control, in other words, how drug laws and policies contribute to the criminalization of poverty. In the case of Jamaica, for example, police routinely target, arrest, and even kill those smoking or possessing “ganja” in poor, marginalized communities. In Brazil, the possession of drugs for personal use was de-penalized, but police have the discre- tion to determine whether possession is for personal use or sale. Application of the law has taken on a distinctly racial tone, as White people are far more likely to be charged with possession than people of color. Of particular concern, as noted in the case of Argentina, is the increasing number of women imprisoned for drug offenses: nearly 70 % in some prisons, often single mothers or caregivers; the consequences of their incarceration for their children, elderly parents, families, and communities can be devastating.