American drug policy has been a central component of U.S.–Mexican
relations, and of Mexican drug policy, at least since 1969, when
Richard Nixon unleashed Operation Intercept at the San Ysidro-Tijuana
border, inspecting every vehicle that crossed the border with the hope,
not of finding any drugs, but of pressuring the government of
then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordáz to expand Mexican drug enforcement.
Since that time at least, the United States has followed a policy of
criminalization, interdiction, and de facto drug-consumption
acceptance, given that American society has been reluctant to pay the
price of a full-fledged attempt at zero tolerance. This has transferred
a significant share of the burden of drug enforcement to the supply
side of the equation, and in consequence, to the foreign policy domain.
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