Table of Contents
What is the economic impact of the war on drugs?
Whilst accurate figures are hard to come by, global spending on drug law enforcement certainly exceeds $100 billion each year. Given current economic conditions it is more important than ever that spending is effective and not a waste of taxpayer money.
What role does Mexico play in the drug trade?
Drug cartels in Mexico control approximately 70% of the foreign narcotics flow into the United States. Mexican cartels distribute Asian methamphetamine to the United States. It is believed that almost half the cartels’ revenues come from cannabis. Cocaine, heroin, and increasingly methamphetamine are also traded.
What are the economic cost of the war on drugs?
Since the official declaration of the drug war in 1971, the United States alone has spent upwards of $640 billion on the war on drugs. 22 Other estimates of the costs of the war are even higher — American Progress reports that it has cost the United States more than $1 trillion.
What led to the crippled Mexican economy in 1981?
The Mexican Oil Boom was an oil boom from 1977 to 1981 which eventually led to a disastrous crash that lasted for most of the 1980s, driving the economy to a payment default and a significant deficit correction as oil prices fell.
Who started the drug cartels in Mexico?
The Guadalajara Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Guadalajara) also known as The Federation (Spanish: La Federación) was a Mexican drug cartel which was formed in the late 1970s by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in order to ship cocaine and marijuana to the United States.
What are the consequences of the War on Drugs?
The criminalization of drug use in the U.S. has led to tragic consequences and mass incarceration, with a disproportionate impact on lower-income and minority communities.
How much money is spent on the drug war?
In 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for an end to the War on Drugs, estimated that the United States spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives, and in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, others have estimated that the US has spent a cumulative $1 trillion on it.
What is the effect of drugs in the country?
The consequences of illicit drug use are widespread, causing permanent physical and emotional damage to users and negatively impacting their families, coworkers, and many others with whom they have contact. Drug use negatively impacts a user’s health, often leading to sickness and disease.
What are cartels in economics?
A cartel is a formal agreement among firms in an oligopolistic industry. Cartel members may agree on such matters as prices, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid-rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these.
What are the benefits of the war on drugs?
Deterrence and lessening of drug related crimes: since the production of, selling of, and consumption of drugs is highly prohibited the number of drug-related crimes would decrease over time Drug-Free Communities: if all the drugs, drug abusers, dealers, and manufacturers are behind bars there will be no one else there …
What are social consequences of the war on drugs?
Criminalisation of drug users, excessive levels of imprisonment, and punitive sentencing practices, including mandatory sentencing, the death penalty and enforced ‘drug detention centres’, are some of the unintended negative consequences of the 50 year ‘war on drugs’, a policy with direct impact on the vulnerable, poor …
What type of economy is Mexico?
The economy of Mexico is a developing market economy. It is the 15th largest in the world in nominal GDP terms and the 12th largest by purchasing power parity, according to the International Monetary Fund. Since the 1994 crisis, administrations have improved the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals.