Trump’s Tariff Threats Can’t Win the Unwinnable War on Drugs
“I’m gonna create borders,” Donald Trump promised during his 2016 campaign. “No drugs are coming in. We’re gonna build a wall. You know what I’m talking about. You have confidence in me. Believe me, I will solve the problem.”
Trump did not, in fact, solve the problem: The annual number of drug-related deaths in the United States rose by 44 percent between 2016 and the last year of his first term. Now Trump blames foreign officials for his failure, which is why he decided to impose punitive tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada until they take “adequate steps” to stop “dangerous narcotics” from entering our country.
That benchmark, which is now the focus of negotiations aimed at avoiding a potentially disastrous trade war, is deliberately vague, with good reason. The huge profits generated by drug prohibition give criminal organizations a powerful incentive to find ways around government-erected obstacles, which explains why politicians have never managed to “stop the flow” of illegal intoxicants.
That challenge is magnified by illicit fentanyl, the main culprit in drug deaths. Fentanyl production, which does not require crops, is much cheaper and easier to conceal than heroin production, and it can be done anywhere in the world.
“At present,” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted last year, “most U.S.-destined illicit fentanyl appears to be produced clandestinely in Mexico, using chemical precursors from China.” Trump wants the Chinese government to crack down on companies that produce those precursors.
As The New York Times reported in December, Mexican cartels already have a backup plan. They are recruiting “chemistry students studying at Mexican universities” to synthesize fentanyl precursors, “freeing them from having to import those raw materials from
Article from Reason.com
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