How Brazil's War On Drugs Is Failing

This is a great piece by Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda on how recent drug gang violence in Brazil revealed the real culprit: The "War on Drugs" itself.

While the decriminalization of drugs has been successful in Portugal, as described in the piece, the contrary happened in Brazil (and in other countries such as the U.S.). 

A good example for the horrible situation in Brazil is Rocinha, a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Like many other favelas tangled in drug-related criminality, it has become a setting of horrific violence. Such areas in Brazil are not ruled by the government but by well-armed drug gangs. 

Favelas like Rocinha are pure war-zones. 

Last week, competing drug gangs literally invaded the favela and are still in open warfare for control of the drug trade. Schools had to be closed and residents were forced to hide in their homes. 

Greenwald and Miranda describe the problem of such situations:

"In the face of drug-related violence, there is a temptation to embrace the seemingly simplest solution: an even-greater war on drugs, more drug dealers and addicts in prison, more police, more prohibition."

Their conclusion:

"But this mentality is based on an obvious, tragic fallacy: namely, that the war on drugs, and drug criminalization, will eliminate drugs or at least reduce their availability. Decades of failure prove this will not happen; rather, the opposite will occur. Like the U.S., Brazil has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of citizens for drug-related crimes — mostly poor and nonwhite — and the problem has only worsened. Any person with minimal rationality would be forced to admit this string of logic is false."