While we commonly think of drugs as a sort of abstracted aggregate, in reality most of the drug trafficking in Latin America comes down to just two drugs: marij

While we commonly think of drugs as a sort of abstracted aggregate, in reality most of the drug trafficking in Latin America comes down to just two drugs: marijuana and cocaine. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/RB9700/RB9770/RAND_RB9770.pdf https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/R... Marijuana is a problem that we are already addressing. A majority of Americans and Westerners in general have supported marijuana legalization for years now, raising hopes that the problem will be solved in some way. Our knowledge about the drug and experience with legal marijuana problems suggests that the downsides of legalization are not very large. Cocaine is a little bit different. It puts severe stress on the heart because it inhibits action potentials in peripheral neurons directly via action on voltage-gated sodium channels and increases metabolic rate via CNS activity. The downsides of cocaine prohibition are massive, but in this case the downsides of legalization have a large uncertainty. However, the severe death toll associated with a $30bn market puts the onus of responsibility on any conscientious American to want to put a stop to it. Unlike powder cocaine, coca leaf has a long history of relatively safe use in the northern Andes. Widespread coca tea use is not considered a public health crisis of any particular concern in Peru and southern Colombia: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/uwoja/article/download/8770/6964 https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/uwoja/article/download/8770... http://eva.fhuce.edu.uy/pluginfile.php/128760/mod_resource/content/1/Labate-%20Prohibition%20religious%20freedom%20%20human%20rights.pdf#page=51 http://eva.fhuce.edu.uy/pluginfile.php/128760/mod_resource/c... The decriminalization of coca tea in Western countries may lead to less gang activity as illegal cocaine manufacture economics shift from large-scale to small-scale extraction. The same situation occurs presently with DMT, albeit on a much smaller scale. Optimistically, addicts may substitute with oral formulations which are generally less addictive due to the relationship between reward delay and the intensity of operant conditioning. Cocaine also substitutes for methamphetamine, which may lower the street price of the latter. However, there is also the possibility of increased crime associated with cocaine extraction, which poses another quandary. It is highly unconventional to enact a policy that will clearly empower certain types of criminals. Nonetheless, I think we need to be open to ideas like these if we are to be ready to take responsibility for the role of US drug policy in destabilizing equatorial Latin America. The situation as it stands is not acceptable. It must be strenuously opposed.