Whack-a-mole Drug War at the Border: Counternarcotics Strategy's Bow to Border Security Hawks

From the TransBorder Project, a critical analysis of how the just announced "2011 Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy" serves to put more money in the pockets of southwest politicians.

Border Lines: Border Counternarcotics Strategy's Bow to Border Security Hawks: "The new border counternarcotics strategy of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy reaches out to border security hawks with special funding initiatives.” ...

For the first time, the strategy includes as one of its ten strategic goals its aim to build “Strong Communities” along the southwestern border. The strategy’s “Strong Communities” goal is to “develop strong and resilient communities that resist criminal activity and promote healthy lifestyles.” This goal directly mirrors one of the four strategic goals of the Merida Initiative, namely “building strong and resilient communities.”

The implication of this strategic goal is that illegal drug flows across the southwestern border disproportionately impact border communities in the rates of drug consumption, drug-related crime and violence, and overall public safety.

Reading about this new “Strong Communities” initiative, one might conclude that border communities are weaker, more crime-ridden, more violent, and more drug-infested than nonborder communities.

Yet neither DHS nor ONDCP present any facts that would support this assessment."