Why the US is losing its war on cocaine

[babsbunny]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2586645.ece

Why the US is losing its war on cocaine
America has spent billions battling the drug industry in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. And the result? Production as high as ever, street prices at a low, and the governments of the region in open revolt. Hugh O'Shaughnessy reports from La Paz, Bolivia
Published: 27 May 2007
The immensely costly "war on drugs" in Latin America is slowly collapsing like a Zeppelin with a puncture. The long-forecast failure for strategies which involve police and military in forcibly suppressing narcotics - first decreed by President Richard Nixon decades ago - is now pitifully evident in Bolivia, one of the poorest countries of the Western hemisphere.

The estimated $25bn (£13bn) that Washington has spent trying to control narcotics over the past 15 years in Latin America seems to have been wasted.

In 2005, according to UN guesses - and, amid merciless political spinning of what few facts there are- Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, the main producers of cocaine, had the capacity to produce 910 metric tons a year. As more productive strains of coca bushes appear, production has been increasing. Unsurprisingly, the price of cocaine on US streets has tumbled, according to the White House drug tzar John Walters, to $135 (£70) a gram, a fraction of the $600 a gram it was fetching in 1981. The purity of cocaine has gone from 60 per cent in mid-2003 to more than 70 per cent last October. Like the conflict in Iraq, the US's other great war is now being visibly lost.

[William769]

1. Why the US is losing its war on cocaine?

Because America has the biggest coca Bush.

[NC_Nurse]

2. Because it's stupid.

The War on Drugs is and has always been a losing proposition. DUH! :o

[Warpy]

9. You can't legislate morality

as the prunefaced Goldwater conservatives used to sneer during the the time the Civil Rights Act was being passed and enforced. They were right, but they should have been focusing on individual liberties, not on the "right" of government and business to exclude a whole group of people from full citizenship because of the color of their skin.

A war on personal decisions, even stupid ones, that harm no one else is incompatible with any society that calls itself free.

[Vexatious Ape]

3. Yes, and like the conflict in Iraq, we had no business starting

the damn thing. And, like the Iraq war, it will take people with real backbones to bring it to an end.

[whistle]

4. We have the Bush crime family to thank for this situation

[mr.alleycat]

11. Yes we do, and....

The people like Ollie North for establishing the connections, and infrastructure to rake in Billions.

[mrcheerful]

5. They lost that war in 1901 they are just now figuring out that they lost

you know republicans are never any good at figuring out lost causes. They keep trying to do the same things they did before hoping that somehow it will end differently.

[yella_dawg]

6. Why the US is losing its war on cocaine

We are losing, apparently because our leadership doesn't understand that you can't declare war on a chemical compound. It's sort of like declaring war on crushed granite or on baking powder. It's idiotic.

Should they suddenly awaken and tackle the social and medical causes of drug abuse, it would disable very lucrative businesses, both in the sales of drugs and in the criminal justice sphere.

[Bullet1987]

7. We're losing because a lot of the crap we bring in ourselves...

...see Iran/Contra affair and Gary Webb's Dark Alliance.

[bamacrat]

8. Because the majority of DEA money goes to combatting weed.

If weed were legal, all that money could be redirected to fight real drugs.

[Czolgosz]

10. Will this issue hurt candidates who have admitted to cocain use?

[MrSlayer]

12. Why do they always lie about the street price?

$135 a gram is ridiculously exaggerated. A sixteenth, 1.75 grams, costs $80 on the street.

[Auntie Bush]

13. Now how do you know?

[MrSlayer]

16. I know people in low places.

O8)

[Auntie Bush]

17. If your're such an angel...you should know people in "high" places.

[MrSlayer]

18. I do.

But they aren't as interesting or in need of my divine influence.

[Auntie Bush]

14. We're losing the war for one reason only.

Because Americans continue to buy, abuse and use it. Simple as that.
It's our own fault!

[tabasco]

15. Maybe because they still make massive efforts to catch marijuana "criminals."

Land of the Free. Haha. Thousands of people in jail for nothing more than pot.

[illinoisprogressive]

19. As long as Americans are greedy for highs to blot out life you cannot win

[smalll]

20. lol - even after the US tries to destroy their industry, the Columbian drug lords

are able not only to survive and thrive, but also to improve the quality and decrease the price of their product! I say, legalize drugs, then hire those wizards to save Ford and GM!