BCT Editorial – 5/2/07

This page was last updated on May 3, 2007.

Lost war; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 2, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The United States is losing the drug war in Colombia, and the free market reflects that.

“The Associated Press reports that cocaine prices in the United States have dropped and the drug’s purity has increased, even after years of effort and nearly $5 billion spent by the U.S. government to combat Colombia’s drug industry,

“In a letter to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, co-chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, drug czar John Walters wrote that retail cocaine prices fell by 11 percent from February 2005 to October 2006, to about $135 per gram of pure cocaine. That puts it near the same levels in the early 1990s.

“To put this in even more discouraging perspective, when the U.S. government began collecting data in 1981, a gram of pure cocaine fetched $600.

“The AP reported declining prices and rising purity could also suggest weakening demand, but several household and school-based surveys show that America’s cocaine consumption has barely budged since 2000, and demand in Europe has increased.

“No matter how you try to spin this, lower prices and better quality means plenty of this stuff is floating around out there.

“Decades into a war on drugs, the United States has little to show for its time, effort and money. But instead of reevaluating the situation, U.S. officials will keep pushing failed strategies and policies. Sound familiar?”

[RWC] It sure does sound familiar. It reminds me of the so-called War on Poverty. We’ve been in this civil war (It’s entirely within our borders.) for over 40 years with no sign of victory. It’s over 70 years when you include Socialist Security, whose stated intent was to stem poverty for the elderly. Based on letters to the editor, editorials, and other op-ed pieces, we’re losing the War on Poverty and have been for decades.

We need exit strategies and withdrawal schedules for the wars on drugs and poverty. There’s no reason to continue to sacrifice our treasure on lost causes.