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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
In a Nationally televised speech on 5 September 1989, President Bush outlined a comprehensive anti-drug program with both domestic and international dimensions. The objectives of this strategy, which was refined and submitted to the Congress on 25 January 1990, are to reduce the amount of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and other dangerous drugs estimated to be entering the United States (a) by 15% within 2 years and (b) by 60% within 10 years.
The strategy includes a number of international components which differ greatly from policies of previous years. New to the strategy are provisions which: (1) provide — for the first time — support for limited economic assistance to major cocaineproducing countries; (2) concentrate more on disrupting the activities of the trafficking organizations [i.e. on seizing processing labs, chemicals and assets] and less on disrupting the activities of farmers [i.e., crop eradication]; (3) encourage increased levels of Andean nation military involvement in counter-narcotics operations; and (4) provide for enhanced US military support to host nation counter-narcotics forces.
© Copyright 1990 Raphael F. Perl. Opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the author and are not to be construed as those of any entity of the US Government.
This paper was prepared for the 1990 Plenary Session of the Inter- American Dialogue.
1 The United States is the world's major consumer of illicit drugs, with best sources indicating that consumers spend an estimated $28 billion dollars per year on cocaine; $68 billion on cannabis, and $10-12 billion on heroin. At least 4/5ths (80%) of all illicit drugs — and all cocaine and heroin consumed in the US — is of foreign origin. US users are estimated to consume roughly 35% of the world's available supply of opium, 10-20% of the world's available marijuana, and somewhere between 9-13% of the world's available cocaine.
2 In fact, US policies and programs are rarely unified and comprehensive in any area, given the fact that the US system of national government is one of divided powers, and US policies are largely the product of incremental decisions or compromises between competing interests.
