As a teenager I saw the war on drugs up close. Then I studied it as an economist and saw it differently.
Cartel leaders assassinated. Fast boats intercepted in the Caribbean. Coast Guard cutters in the Pacific. Vessels destroyed from the air. Last weekend, Mexican forces—with CIA intelligence support—killed “El Mencho,” leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel; within hours, retaliatory violence erupted across Mexico. Since September 2025, the Pentagon’s Operation Southern Spear has conducted more than 40 strikes on small boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing around 150 people. The images are designed to look decisive, muscular and tough.
This approach, according to the economics of illegal markets, is almost certainly making the problem worse. And not for the first time. Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs. Ronald Reagan signed mandatory minimums into law. Bill Clinton launched Plan Colombia. George W. Bush doubled down on it. Barack Obama expanded border interdiction. Each administration chose supply-side enforcement. Each one failed. The current administration has simply found a more cinematic way to repeat the mistake.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
______________________
Roland G. Fryer, Jr., a John A. Paulson Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is Professor of Economics at Harvard University, an entrepreneur, and co-founder of Equal Opportunity Ventures.
Photo by OsakaWayne Studios/Getty Images