Silver or Lead
Drug War Marie Javdani’s “Plata o Plomo:Silver or Lead tells a story of how the United States attempts to fight the war on drugs. Her point of view shows us how the drug trade effects families and individual people on both sides.
Our government tries to fight too much from the wrong side as Javdani tells us “In an attempt to find the quickest way around a complicated problem, each year the United States sends billions in aid dollars every year to the governments of Latin American ‘drug source’ countries” (403). This statement by Javdani shows just how lopsided the war on drugs is. Our government believes if we bring the fight to the source, we can stop the drugs from coming into our country and therefore win the drug war. As Javdani tells us, this is not the best approach as most landowners in these Latin American countries do not have a choice of whether or not their land is cultivated for drugs. Drug lords control vast areas of these Latin American countries with impunity. Our aid dollars and military equipment are not enough for these governments to secure the country sides for their citizens, lack of training and support for law enforcement combined with widespread government corruption ensure that the majority of our aid dollars to these countries fail to stop the drug flow. The appetite for drugs in the United States fuels the drug trade. Our government could achieve better results if we educated children early and consistently, treated people with addictions, and toughened the drug laws in our country. We will never eradicate drugs in our country, but we can lessen the effects they present by looking at the problems caused here by our demand for them instead of trying to control what people do in another country.
Works Cited
Javdani, Marie. “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead”. The Brief Bedford Reader. Ed. X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy Kennedy, and Jane-Aaron. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012 402-408.Print
Our government tries to fight too much from the wrong side as Javdani tells us “In an attempt to find the quickest way around a complicated problem, each year the United States sends billions in aid dollars every year to the governments of Latin American ‘drug source’ countries” (403). This statement by Javdani shows just how lopsided the war on drugs is. Our government believes if we bring the fight to the source, we can stop the drugs from coming into our country and therefore win the drug war. As Javdani tells us, this is not the best approach as most landowners in these Latin American countries do not have a choice of whether or not their land is cultivated for drugs. Drug lords control vast areas of these Latin American countries with impunity. Our aid dollars and military equipment are not enough for these governments to secure the country sides for their citizens, lack of training and support for law enforcement combined with widespread government corruption ensure that the majority of our aid dollars to these countries fail to stop the drug flow. The appetite for drugs in the United States fuels the drug trade. Our government could achieve better results if we educated children early and consistently, treated people with addictions, and toughened the drug laws in our country. We will never eradicate drugs in our country, but we can lessen the effects they present by looking at the problems caused here by our demand for them instead of trying to control what people do in another country.
Works Cited
Javdani, Marie. “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead”. The Brief Bedford Reader. Ed. X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy Kennedy, and Jane-Aaron. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012 402-408.Print
Cited: Javdani, Marie. “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead”. The Brief Bedford Reader. Ed. X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy Kennedy, and Jane-Aaron. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012 402-408.Print