NCJ Number
176719
Date Published
1997
Length
91 pages
Annotation
The Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force reviews U.S. international drug strategy and suggests possible future directions.
Abstract
The bipartisan Task Force -- chaired by Mathea Falco, President of Drug Strategies, and former Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters -- included experts with backgrounds in diplomacy, law enforcement, economic development, public health, judicial institutions, human rights, and multinational business. Prominent academics, government officials, and policy experts presented a wide range of perspectives for the Task Force's consideration. The Task Force believes that America's international drug-control priorities should shift from a focus on foreign drug supplies to the growing power and profits of the transnational drug cartels that challenge the integrity of political, financial, and judicial institutions in America and abroad. The United States should give greater emphasis to efforts both to strengthen democratic governments and to combat money laundering, drug-related corruption, and violence, using bilateral and multilateral initiatives. The United States should reassess both the emphasis on interdiction and source-country crop reduction, which over the past 20 years has done little more than rearrange the map of drug production and trafficking. The Task Force also believes that international efforts, however successful, cannot be expected to reduce drug abuse within the United States. Demand reduction -- prevention, education, treatment, community law enforcement -- is the key to achieving sustained progress in addressing America's drug problems. A list of 46 resources