Is the War on Drugs Killing the Environment? | The War on Drugs

We talk a lot about the human and financial costs of the War on Drugs – but this conflict is also having a serious environmental impact.

From the military spraying pesticides onto the Amazon rainforest to suppress coca production, to MDMA producers dumping toxic chemicals into rivers in the Netherlands – the illegal drug trade is unquestionably bad for nature.

But whose fault is this? All the drugs we take could be produced in much greener ways as part of a legal, regulated market. The problem is not that they are drugs, it’s that they are illegal. Is the war on drugs killing the environment?

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