International Drug Conventions, Balanced Policy Recipes, and Latin American Cocaine Markets

Abstract

This chapter explores the logic of the international drug conventions and their “comprehensive, integrated, and balanced” drug policy approach that rejects all “nonmedical and scientific” drug uses and implicitly seeks a drug-free world. It questions the logic of that policy approach, its consistency with the reasons given for the conventions, and whether the prevalent interpretation of the conventions is logically derived from them, and it explores the implicit assumptions behind the logic of the conventions. It contrasts the policy approach of the conventions with the “balanced recipe” proposed in this book, which seeks to maximize individual liberties if they do not harm others and to incorporate into policy making and implementation processes the existence of market externalities and the inconsistency of human decisions. It shows that drug phenomena are not independent of other problems arising from social vulnerabilities and structures and shows why successful, balanced drug policies must recognize the complexity of drug phenomena and the need to include all relevant nonstate stakeholders in policy formulation and implementation processes. This chapter argues that to have truly successful drug policies, countries need to tackle their social and structural vulnerabilities. A short sketch of some of the characteristics of the evolution of the cocaine markets, coca eradication, and local microtraffic in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and other Latin American countries illustrates the need for a policy approach that responds to the vulnerabilities of each country and the need for an international control system in which drug policies are formulated in coordination with all policies that confront possible social harms.