What Do You Get From A Drug War Costing $25 Billion Per Year? Cocaine 74% Cheaper Than 10 Years Ago

[TalkingDog]

http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/05/new-york-times-what-do-you-get-from-a-dr


When policy makers in Washington worry about Mexico these days, they think in terms of a handful of numbers: Mexico’s 19,500 hectares devoted to poppy cultivation for heroin; its 17,500 hectares growing cannabis; the 95 percent of American cocaine imports brought by Mexican cartels through Mexico and Central America.

They are thinking about the wrong numbers. If there is one number that embodies the seemingly intractable challenge imposed by the illegal drug trade on the relationship between the United States and Mexico, it is $177.26. That is the retail price, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data, of one gram of pure cocaine from your typical local pusher. That is 74 percent cheaper than it was 30 years ago.

This number contains pretty much all you need to evaluate the Mexican and American governments’ “war” to eradicate illegal drugs from the streets of the United States. They would do well to heed its message. What it says is that the struggle on which they have spent billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of lives over the last four decades has failed. ...

[Kablooie]

1. 74% Cheaper? Wow. And I thought the Drug War wasn't doing anything worthwhile.

[Oldenuff]

2. Also adds more to the prison population..

resulting in ever greater profits for the for-profit prison operators..Cheaper product means more customers,and more customers means more prisoners statistically speaking.


Now,if they could just apply the same principal to gasoline.





And he was all like, "I will open the doors of Government and ask you to be involved in your own Democracy again", that is..until the topic of Cannabis legalization came up...




Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author”

[coalition_unwilling]

3. If we had spent as much on the 'war on poverty' as we've spent on the

failed 'war on drugs' and the failed 'war on terror,' we would probably have eradicated poverty for the most part by now.

Just a guess.

[MrSlayer]

4. $180, for a gram?

Someone's getting ganked big time.

[Politicalboi]

5. 30 years ago

Wasn't it around $100.00 a gram? I lived with a big time dealer for 9 months back in 1985. He would bring in a cake size slab and break it up on his dresser. It would come in a freezer ziplock bag that I would scrape and get at least 2 grams from it. Those were the days. It costs "Gumby" about $5.00 a gram when he bought bulk. LOL!

So lucky we never went to jail, or died from overdosing.

[malcolmkyle]

6. We're falling over a cliff

Mexico's gruesome civil war is clearly a product of the failed policy of Prohibition.

Alcohol Prohibition was a tremendous failure due to the incredible amount of crime and disorder it created. Human nature hasn't changed since the 1920s when the distribution of liquor was turned over to a whole new group of criminal entrepreneurs. Drug Prohibition has turned Mexico into a civil war zone. Dangerous mind altering substances are again being manufactured, smuggled and sold by criminals. Our intentions in prohibiting these substances may well be good but the result of our inability to recognize the futility of such an action will both deepen and prolong the agony caused by this extremely counter-productive and dangerous policy.

The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. - Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.

So may we have some realism from all of you now on how to go about reclaiming our streets and stopping this mayhem: Please start making an honest effort to address the root cause of the present horrific mess and the high proliferation of "well funded" violent Cartels..

Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.

[Jared Martin]

7. Spam deleted by Violet_Crumble (MIR Team)

[NYC_SKP]

8. Cash Cow. Why change from a program that can skim from every step of the process?

Every step, profit to those in power, what's to stop them?

What?