<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Watching the documentary <i>Cocaine Cowboys</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> gives the viewer a somewhat skewed view of the “war on drugs” that America started fighting in the 1970s and 1980 and are still apparently fighting today. The United States government makes it appear more than necessary to get all illegal drugs out of this country and to stop the threat of their importation by taking them down at the source. The film portrays this view as completely reasonable, what with all of the mafia-like wars and shootouts constantly happening in Miami in the late 70s and early 80s. This doesn’t seem to be quite the case, however, for the rest of the country, but the United States has still spent billions of dollars since this cocaine boom on eliminating the drug from this country. This all can be seen as a façade if one reads the “Documentation of Official US Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras.” The government apparently had specific knowledge of drug runs being made right under their noses, and did nothing about it. Perhaps the US wasn’t interested in stopping Americans from making money, but shutting down the lucrative cocaine crops of other countries. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The United States must know how its interference and policies have affected the economies of Latin American countries that produce high amounts of cocaine, thus stimulating the economies of these countries. The implementation of countless anti-drug programs in the United States, along with working with the governments of the cocaine-producing countries has cost the United States billions without affecting the drug-production in these countries almost at all, according to Coletta Younger’s article “Collateral Damage: The US ‘War on Drugs’ and its Impact on Democracy in the Andes.” The American government cannot figure out a productive way to stop drug production in Latin America, or how to keep these drugs out of American hands. Also, as Younger points out, the people in Latin America need jobs growing the plant that cocaine is made from. These are poor people who have a ready made job that suits them and the land around them, who is America to go in and tell these countries to shut down this production that is obviously stimulating their economy. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Younger’s article also points out the threat to human rights that the drug war produces. The United States trains Latin American military people on how to combat drugs, stating that they have a special course that focuses on human rights. The soldiers however, do not always follow this course correctly. It seems that the military feel the need to go after anyone involved in drugs, no matter what the cost at the time, making court hearings and persecutions very hard because of the lack of discipline shown by the people in charge of these drug busts. All in all it seems that the American government is very hypocritical concerning its “War on Drugs” and its methods behind eliminating drugs in America. Its concern at home is affecting the lives of so many people in Latin America. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1328590662320988729-3294976997198185475?l=kmclean5-history475.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
