US Senate says Mexico’s war on drugs precluded by ineffective military and corruption. But isn’t prohibition the problem in the first place?

(Mexico to go) - 12 July. 

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron thinks prohibition equals corruption

Mexico’s army has failed to root out drug cartels and may have stimulated increased violence in the country by breaking up large criminal organizations into smaller fighting groups, Mural newspaper reported on Thursday, using as source a Washington Post news item based on a US Congressional report. The cited report suggested that the country’s anti-drug effort should be based on strong policing and competent federal and state prosecutors. Training the police and the attorneys in charge of taking criminals to justice would however take several years and “perhaps a generation”. 

The Senate´s report may be right in its assessment. Unfortunately, it should go further and question drug prohibition as a whole, which is purely en element of American policy which promotes corruption and economic losses with a minimum of benefits, according to the analysis of well reputed economists.