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An article in today's LA Times provides some much needed (and sadly rare) skepticism about the government's recent chest-pounding about rising cocaine prices:
Price bumps in U.S. street cocaine prices have occurred before, touted by U.S. law enforcement officials each time as evidence that counter-narcotics policies were working. But the increases often proved temporary and were followed by supply adjustments by drug dealers and a settling back of cocaine prices.[...]Others, such as Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based organization advocating alternatives to the administration's drug policy, said higher prices inevitably cause dealers to boost supply."Assuming that high cocaine prices are hurting cartels is like assuming high gasoline prices are hurting oil companies," Piper said.Others say the decreased supply may just reflect the fact that more Colombian cocaine is being shipped to Europe, where it can fetch even higher prices.Meanwhile, Congress is considering another five billion dollars for Plan Colombia, our ongoing effort to combat coca cultivation in that country (and that's just a fraction of the approximately 100 billion spent each year around the world combating drug use). The continuing fiasco that is our nations' drug policy unfortunately shows no signs of getting better any time soon, and Democrats, though they are insisting on some improvements in treatment of small farmers in Columbia, aren't challenging the basic assumptions behind the way we've conducted drug policy. Even considering a more reasonable policy would be instantly declared political suicide by the Tim Russerts and David Broders of the world even though, for example, 40 percent of Americans support legalization of marijuana. For much much more see Foreign Policy's excellent coverage. --Sam Boyd
