Public Health Reduces Drug Deaths, Not Wars

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Republicans have defended Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela as necessary to solve the drug overdose crisis.

For instance, Vice President J.D. Vance posted on Twitter/X, “cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin America cartels. If you cut out the money from cocaine (or even reduce it) you substantially weaken the cartels overall. Also, cocaine is bad too!”

Representative Brian Mast (R-FL)...