The War on Drugs. An Example of Global Injustice

Abstract

This article argues that the War on Drugs (WOD) is globally unjust because states violate their negative duty to not harm people by imposing a coercive institutional order in which the object of human rights is not secure to all members of society.
Using Plan Colombia as a case study and Thomas Pogge’s global justice theory, the article examines how militarized drug strategies, promoted by the United States and adopted by Colombia, have led to human rights violations without achieving the desired goal of ending drug trafficking. The analysis shows that the WOD criminalizes vulnerable communities affected by poverty, state neglect, and armed conflict. Moreover, these policies fail to address the structural causes of drug production and trafficking, reinforce global inequalities rooted in colonial disparities and exploitation, and do not confront the impact of demand from the Global North. Altogether, it led to the deprivation of the object of human rights of Colombians.
The article proposes alternative approaches based on harm reduction, respect for human rights, a global commitment to distributive justice, and combat inequalities in the global economic order. Some are equal participation of states in global anti-drug law, legalization of personal doses, proscribing military strategies, investing in health programs focused on prevention and consumption, prohibition of forced eradication of illegal crops, and promoting aid programs to farmers that cut dependency to illegality.