Drones and missiles can’t solve America’s drug problems

A bucketful of addicts' syringes collected in Seattle. (Image: Getty)

Sun, 17 Sep 2023

By Eduardo Porter Three decades ago, Mexican farmers could sell their corn at about US$415 (NZ$700) per ton, on average, in today’s dollars. It didn’t make for much of a living. Roughly four in 10 agricultural workers at the time made less than the minimum wage, equivalent to US$1.40 (NZ$2.36) an hour in 2023 dollars. Corn growers – just shy of a third of the total – were near the bottom of that pile.Then the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) came about. Over the next 15 years, Mexican tariffs on corn...

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