He cited the kidnapping and murder of Korean businessman Ji Ick-Joo, allegedly by personnel of the police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group who even demanded the victim’s wife pay a ransom even after they had killed him.
“This is not unusual,†Collins said. “This is not something where anyone who looks at the drug policy will say, 'Oh wow, that was unpredictable’.†Collins said.
Although governments have the idea that the war on drugs will be waged against the bigwigs, in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, it is the poor and minority peoples who end up in jail while the elites remain untouched. Meanwhile, policies that drive enforcers to “do strange things†allow “opportunistic†persons to exploit -- and profit -- from the situation through, say, extortion.
“Who actually bears the cost of the war on drugs?†Collins asked. He pointed to the “significant economic costs†from the loss of human capital and noted it often takes decades for affected communities to recover after their “social fabric†has been disrupted.
In the US, Collins said, some black communities hardly have any men left because of mass incarceration, and the people who engage in the drug trade become younger and younger. There are no male role models; how will this affect the children and their children?
Nevertheless, Collins said such repressive and, eventually, futile approaches to fighting drugs remained popular around the globe until the AIDS epidemic of the late 20th century, when injecting drugs was confirmed to be “a key vector†in the spread of the disease. This led to what is now the more widely accepted approach to the problem, looking at it through the lens of public health and working to reduce the harm from drug use.
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