There is new evidence that we continue to lose the "war on drugs". Prior to his visit to the U.S. next Wednesday, Columbian President Alvaro Uribe admitted that a new White House survey shows that coca production in Columbia has risen again for the third year in a row.
The United States, in conjunction with Columbian authorities, have waged an agressive campaign to wipe out coca production in the country since 1999. However, coca production from 1999 through 2006 has risen about 27%. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy survey used satellite imagery to conclude that in 2006, coca production rose by about 8%.
In 2005, there were 355,831 acres of coca production. In 2006, the number of acres had grown to 385,484. Couple this with the fact that in the last year, cocaine in the U.S. has dropped in price and risen in purity, and it becomes pretty obvious that we are not winning this "war".
This is not the fault of our police agencies. They are doing the best they can. Last year here in Texas, the Department of Public Safety once again seized a record amount of cocaine and other drugs.
The fact is that this is a war that cannot be won. If people want drugs, there will always be someone to supply it to them. Wherever there is a demand, there will be a supply.
We need to attack this problem in a different way. We must realize that this is not a legal problem, but a medical and societal problem. Our money should be going into drug education and rehabilitation, rather than in policing efforts.
This is just not a problem that can be solved by our legal system.
But.. but... what do we do with the pretty gulag we've built for all these crackheads, if we instead put them in treatment programs? And all those prison guards would have to find new jobs!
ReplyDeleteTrue story: Rural county I lived in, in a southern state, total population of the county roughly 8,000 people. They built a county jail capable of holding 500 inmates. *way* bigger than the county needs, hell, their last county lock up had 20 cells and was half empty. Last I heard, most of the inmates were from places like Colorado and California where the prisons were overcrowded. They're pulling in big money for this. Gives jobs to rural areas.
Remember, the purpose of law is to make sure that rural areas get welfare. We couldn't just give them the money directly because, well, that'd be welfare.
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Silly me!
ReplyDeleteI totally forgot that justice is big business now.
Let's revisit the War on Drugs six months from now and gauge what progress has been made. It may still be too soon to declare victory or defeat, but we'll be in a better position to wait six months and then gauge what progress has been made.
ReplyDeleteThink maybe a "surge" would help?
ReplyDelete