BrianGarst.com

A Weekly Standard blog, “Measuring Success in the Drug War,” describes a paradox in the war on drugs as the author sees it.  Specifically, that successfully removing drug leaders results in a temporary increase in violence as the small fish fight to fill the void left by the loss of their big fish.  Thus, he says, the successful prosecution of the drug war creates a falsely troubling perception.

He just assumes, without logical explanation, that removing these kingpins is itself a success – that it is moving toward the end goal of the drug war (which presumably is to win).  But this is not true.  The movement itself is also illusory.  The very fact that the underlings are fighting to take over should make this point self-evident.  No matter how many big fish you remove, there will always be more to take their place. You cannot “win” by pursuing a strategy of removing an infinitely replaceable resource.

So long as the little fish have so much incentive to try and become big fish, attacking the drug lords is a massive waste of time and resources.  A better strategy is to remove the power and economic opportunity presented by being a drug lord, but that would require revisiting our draconian prohibition policies.

drug war