Rethinking the "War on Drugs" Through the US-Mexico Prism

Few places in the world better characterize the full extent of policy challenges resulting from drug trafficking and consumption than the United States and Mexico.

The US is the world's largest consumer of drugs. It comprises just five percent of the global population, yet most estimates suggest that the US accounts for over 25 percent of global demand for illicit drugs. At the same time, Mexico is the US's largest supplier of illicit drugs, and an increasingly significant supplier of drugs to many European nations. Furthermore, in recent years Mexico has been affected by an epidemic of violence stemming from organized crime of unprecedented proportions.

This ebook is the result of a conference organized by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization in May of 2011 which had a modest but critical objective: to take stock and distill the relevant research and empirical evidence generated over the years on the drug problem and confront it with the state of affairs on this issue as seen through the prism of the United States and Mexican experiences.

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