Who Created the Drug Trafficking Monster
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THE television series ”Miami Vice” might appropriately symbolize the conflicting views of Americans and Colombians about narcotics traffic. THE television series ”Miami Vice” might appropriately symbolize the conflicting views of Americans and Colombians about narcotics traffic. For many Americans, ”Miami Vice” confirms their perception of Colombia as a violent, sordid and corrupt nation. But for many Colombians, who also used to view the series, it is the drug-consuming culture of the United States that creates the monsters of greed and violence depicted on the show. During the marijuana boom in the 1970’s, many Americans thought Colombia was victimizing the United States by being ‘’soft” on marijuana exporters. Some even spoke of American users as hostages of Colombian crime. But in Colombia, the perception was that the United States was hostage to its own proclivity for drugs. And that, some influential people here thought, was none of our business. If Americans wanted marijuana, the reasoning went, why should we jail poor peasants who prefer to earn five times more growing Santa Marta gold than they would planting corn? More : query.nytimes.com |