Staff Reports
American liberals have been hit with some tough news from Latin America recently. First, Argentina elected a libertarian president who is a fan of Donald Trump. And now, Ecuador’s new president has overturned a policy that U.S. leftists have been supporting for years. Maybe it’s time for progressives to take a look at their southern neighbors and learn a thing or two.
Last week, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa scrapped a policy that decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs. He argued that this policy encouraged drug trafficking in schools and led to a generation of addicted children. The policy applied to small amounts of marijuana, cocaine paste, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamine for personal use. It was put in place by the country’s former socialist president Rafael Correa a decade ago.
Noruba, who is just 35 years old and took office last Thursday, wasted no time in repealing the policy. He has seen firsthand the consequences of drug decriminalization in his country. Violence has exploded in Ecuador in recent years as gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels fight for control. Homicides have quadrupled since 2018, reaching a record high of 26 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Daniel Noboa was sworn in Thursday as Ecuador’s president, a role that citizens are demanding he uses to restore the public safety that drug cartels and other criminal organizations robbed them of at the decade’s start. https://t.co/vJcM5hiANs
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) November 23, 2023
This is a clear example of the unintended consequences of well-intended but misguided policies. Making sweeping changes based on ideology alone can have disastrous results. Oregon, for example, decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs in 2020. The idea was to minimize penalties for drug use and focus on recovery. However, drug use has only increased and become more dangerous since then, with the state experiencing a surge in synthetic opioid deaths.
Even left-leaning publications like The Atlantic have acknowledged the failure of these policies. A poll conducted in Oregon revealed that a majority of respondents blamed the decriminalization measure for worsening drug addiction, homelessness, and crime. Despite these clear signs, liberals are often reluctant to acknowledge the reality and make necessary changes.
This recent decision by Ecuador’s president serves as a stark reminder that decriminalization does not solve the problem of drug addiction. In fact, it can make the situation even worse, especially for vulnerable populations like children. It’s time for American leftists to reevaluate their stance and learn from the experiences of countries like Ecuador. But given their track record, it’s unlikely that they will change their tune anytime soon.
