Posted on 12/04/2004 7:03:28 PM PST by cryptical
WASHINGTON -- Prices for cocaine and heroin have reached 20-year lows, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Washington Office on Latin America, which usually is critical of U.S. policies in Latin America, said the low prices called into question the effectiveness of the two-decade U.S. war on drugs. A White House official said the numbers were old and didn't reflect recent efforts in Colombia to curb drug cultivation.
The Washington Office on Latin America, citing the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the street price of 2 grams of cocaine averaged $106 in the first half of 2003, down 14 percent from the previous year's average and the lowest price in 20 years.
An official with the Office of National Drug Control Policy confirmed the figures, which haven't been publicly released.
The report comes as the Bush administration and Congress work with Colombian authorities to craft a successor to Plan Colombia, which will end late next year after pumping more than $3 billion into Colombia to fight drugs since 2000.
The Washington Office on Latin America accused the White House drug-policy office of not releasing price and purity numbers since 2000 because the data were "inconvenient."
"It strays too far from the message of imminent drug-war success, particularly around Plan Colombia," said John Walsh, a senior associate with the Latin America organization.
The organization said that not only had the price of cocaine on U.S. streets dropped to a fifth of its 1981 level, but heroin was much cheaper too. A gram of heroin, which cost $329 in 1981, sold for $60 in the first half of 2003, it said.
The drug policy adviser said Bush administration officials thought those numbers no longer reflected reality.
"We're always looking in the rearview mirror," said the official, who requested anonymity.
The official said the government of President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia, which took office in 2002, had made big gains in cutting back coca crops with fumigation campaigns and has put the drug industry "under duress." The drug-policy office figures on coca eradication in Colombia show a 33 percent decline in acreage under cultivation from 2001 to 2003.
"This does not preclude surprises," the official said. "This is an adaptable snake (but) we have a stranglehold on the snake."
Actually it's a simple economic cycle. Crack down on the drug trade, supply goes down, prices go up, more people enter the trade since there's a good profit to be made, supply goes up, prices come down.
This is not necessarily the case. As reported in The Economist last week Europe is experiencing the same phenomenon. However, they attribute it to a fundamental restructuring of the industry away from the vertically integrated, homogeneous cartels (read inefficient) to a highly competitive, distributed and specialized distribution model. Prices have come down but supplier margins have been cut to the bone.
Of course demand could be drying up.
Has anyone considered declaring war on prescription drugs?
Or at least in trying to get the Colombian cartels to take an interest in the industry?
In machine tool engineering that's called a ratchet-action pump.
A gram of heroin, which cost $329 in 1981, sold for $60 in the first half of 2003, it said.And about three times as strong.
LOL That's exactly what they said last year. I'm guessing that's what they'll say again next year.
Frequent Snorters Miles BTTT
No way! We won the War on Poverty, we'll win this one too!
They do have an interest in that indrustry. Gray market, diluted and counterfeit prescription drugs sold in Mexico and California.
What a great post!!! What a sense of humor!
Or the next corner.
Or the one after that.
Or the one after that.
FReegards,
Steel Wolf
You don't stop teaching algebra because the kids don't get it. If we're losing, then ramp it up. Raise the stakes until something breaks. I don't see the problem with that, except recreational drug users and drug dealers won't like it.
End The War on Drugs NOw!
Yeesh! Give it up! Legalize all drugs and create the same laws we have for alcohol and prescription drugs..none to minors, driving under the influence, etc.
Taxing the stuff and getting out all the ridiculous "criminals" in jails and prisons for non violent, non sales drug charges...wow, would we save money and have plenty for drug rehab and education programs.
I think we should just commit to having one LEO in every single residence...
They declared a war on alcohol in 1918 but by 1933 they had realized that it was a mistake and repealed it, yet the WOD, which has it's roots in the racism of the early 20th century 'Rat party, has continued to be the tool of choice for stealing the rights of the people.
A billion law enforcement officers is no match for good policy.
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