USA - US Claims Success in War on Drugs

[MrG]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7025308.stm

Wednesday, 3 October 2007

The top US drugs official has said anti-drug efforts are having the best results of the past 20 years.

John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said cocaine shortages had led to a jump in prices in 37 American cities.
Efforts on both sides of the Mexican border have disrupted the flow of all drugs into the US, Mr Walters said.
But he said it had not yet been proven if the results could be sustained over the long term.
Mexican traffickers extradited
Mr Walters was speaking as the US and Mexico work out the details of an aid plan - expected to total $1bn - for Mexico to help combat drug cartels.
About 90% of the cocaine entering the US comes through Mexico.
"What's happened for the first time in two decades is we now see widespread reports of cocaine shortages in the United States," Mr Walters said.
In 37 cities had reported, he said, "the lack of the ability to receive wholesale amounts, kilo amounts, of cocaine in the quantities previously supplied at prices previously charged".
As a result of the drop in supply, the price of cocaine had increased by 24% and nearly doubled in some cities.
The drugs tsar credited Mexican President Felipe Calderon for some of the success.
He said US investigators had been working closely with Mexican authorities in their fight against the drug cartels.
Since Mr Calderon took office in December he has sent 25,000 soldiers and police to Mexican provinces plagued by drug violence and it seems to be working, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Mexico City.
Several high-profile Mexican traffickers have been extradited to the US in recent months.
Mr Walters also said that fewer American workers were showing positive on drug tests and that there were fewer cocaine-related hospital admissions. The real challenge, he said, would be maintaining the results over the long term.

[Evil GIR]

They wish, they could get rid of 100 or 1000 drug lords and there will still be 10,000,000 waiting to take there place. As long as people want drugs there will still be others trying to sell them.

This is a war they are never going to win, I dont think ill ever stoping munching shrooms or what ever till the day i die. Put me in prision ill get drugs there too, probably not the good drugs but its still drugs.

[Felonious Skunk]

John Walters is a compulsive liar and nothing coming out of his mouth bears any relationship to reality.

[El Calico Loco]

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED


ECL

[enquirewithin]

Sure the War on Drugs is working. So is the War on Terror. So is the "surge"!

[FuBai]

I still don't understand how they think they are winning the war on drugs when global production levels are at their highest ever. What's more border initiatives to prevent smuggling will simply result in a rise in home-made drugs like Methamphetamine, MDMA etcetera. All you will see is a shift in production sites and what the product is. God help America if they successfully wipe out cocaine importation, as there is going to be a Meth-epidemic of unprecedented levels.

[MrG]

Follow up by the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7027490.stm
Thursday, 4 October 2007

US-Mexico drugs blitz 'success'

By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Mexico City


Four tons of cocaine were found in a crashed plane in Mexico

Startling figures released this week by the United States drug tsar have hinted at progress in the battle against drugs.
Two of them came this week in the form of some startling figures.
First, the price of cocaine in 37 cities across the United States has risen sharply since March. In some cases it's up by 50%.
Second, the purity of cocaine has dropped by 11% over the same period, indicating the dealers are diluting their dwindling stocks to stretch it further and meet demand.
Both figures were released by John Walters, the top White House official in charge of anti-drug efforts.
"After 25 years of cocaine coming into the United States, there has never been the kind of disruption of this magnitude for this long," Mr Walters said.
Ninety percent of cocaine entering the US comes through Mexico.
Mr Walters was quick to praise the efforts of the Mexican authorities who have, in the past year, taken the fight to the cartels that supply the sought-after white powder.
Since taking office last December, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico has sent nearly 30,000 troops and federal police across his country to battle the drug gangs and disrupt their activities.
After much early scepticism, this approach now seems to be working.
Jail sentences
As well as the apparent reductions in the quantities of cocaine making it over the border, major traffickers, like the Arrellano Felix brothers who ran the Tijuana cartel, have been arrested and jailed.

Crack cocaine has appeared on the scene in the last decade

Then there was the arrest last week of the woman known as the Queen of the Pacific, Sandra Avila Beltran. She is alleged to be the mastermind behind the Sinaloa cartel.
There could be more good news soon. Mexico and the United States are finalising a deal that could pump up to a billion dollars into Mexico to equip and train its police force to be even more effective.
Yet Mexico is also paying a price for this battle to keep American cities starved of cocaine.
The move to crush the cartels unleashed a brutal underworld war. It has left as many as 2,000 people dead this year, including about 60 police commanders, 22 soldiers and 160 police officers.
And a trade that once by-passed Mexico is taking root here as well.
The cartels have opened up local markets to avoid risking the improved border security and to take advantage of growing Mexican affluence.
Trends
Crack cocaine and Ice (as methamphetamine is known), unheard of 10 years ago, are now the sought-after narcotics by thousands of Mexicans.

Walters draws comparisons with the "French Connection" drug haul

The government has been so alarmed by the trend it has just started a programme to test all high school students for drugs.
As if to underline the continued threat, a plane carrying nearly four tons of cocaine crashed last week in south-eastern Mexico, a sign that the flow of drugs has not yet been completely staunched.
Mr Walters says the greatest benchmark for success was the smashing of the "French Connection" in the 1970s.
That was the breaking up of the heroin supply chain from Europe to New York City.
The operation was so successful that Hollywood turned it into a movie, famous for its violent excesses and car chases.
John Walters is no "Popeye" Doyle, the gritty, unscrupulous detective played in the film by Gene Hackman: someone bent on breaking not only the ring behind the drugs, but also every law and jaw bone that stood in his way. Instead, he is President Bush's official point man in the effort to reverse years of industrial scale substance abuse. It is his teams, as well as those south of the border, that can take credit this week for bringing policy success to an area many believed was immune to progress.

[enquirewithin]

Who would trust those figures unless they came from an independent source? Anyway, even if they are true, that's not much of a success.

[Iseethefnords]

Yep, largest prison population in the word, 70% or so composed of minor drug offenders who have never hurt anyone in their lives, drug lords still making billion$, and kids can still buy heroin easier than a pack of cigarettes. We've won alright.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Excellent Point

[flipthecandy]

This is an unwinnable war if I've ever seen one. Waste of money, time and effort. Not to mention the breach of human freedom, but that's another story...

[enquirewithin]

But if you are making a profit from the prison-industrial complex, it's just great!

[dr ACE]

eh the government just feed the public horse poo like this all the time. They sure as hell don't want the 'war on drugs' to end,so it sure as hell will not.

Cocaine & cannabis will never go away the government needs the 'war on drugs' so they can profit from it and make themselves look good by propaganda poo like this,so it goes on,and on,and on......

[Iseethefnords]

If the war on drugs is won can they end it now?

[flipthecandy]

Originally Posted by Iseethefnords

If the war on drugs is won can they end it now?

What, and let people make their own choices on what to do with their body? Are you crazy? I can't believe you! What would Abraham Lincoln say?

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principle upon which our government was founded."

Oh, jeez, way to back me up, Abe. Ok, yeah he was probably talking about alcohol prohibition, but what he said goes for drug prohibition as well.

[kilgore]

Originally Posted by MrG

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7025308.stm

Wednesday, 3 October 2007

The top US drugs official has said anti-drug efforts are having the best results of the past 20 years.

John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said cocaine shortages had led to a jump in prices in 37 American cities.
Efforts on both sides of the Mexican border have disrupted the flow of all drugs into the US, Mr Walters said.
But he said it had not yet been proven if the results could be sustained over the long term.
Mexican traffickers extradited
Mr Walters was speaking as the US and Mexico work out the details of an aid plan - expected to total $1bn - for Mexico to help combat drug cartels.
About 90% of the cocaine entering the US comes through Mexico.
"What's happened for the first time in two decades is we now see widespread reports of cocaine shortages in the United States," Mr Walters said.
In 37 cities had reported, he said, "the lack of the ability to receive wholesale amounts, kilo amounts, of cocaine in the quantities previously supplied at prices previously charged".
As a result of the drop in supply, the price of cocaine had increased by 24% and nearly doubled in some cities.
The drugs tsar credited Mexican President Felipe Calderon for some of the success.
He said US investigators had been working closely with Mexican authorities in their fight against the drug cartels.
Since Mr Calderon took office in December he has sent 25,000 soldiers and police to Mexican provinces plagued by drug violence and it seems to be working, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Mexico City.
Several high-profile Mexican traffickers have been extradited to the US in recent months.
Mr Walters also said that fewer American workers were showing positive on drug tests and that there were fewer cocaine-related hospital admissions. The real challenge, he said, would be maintaining the results over the long term.

Hilarious . When I listen to the crap these guys spew I wonder what they are on and is it legal?

[.Infamous.]

As long as drugs exist, they will have their "war" just to make it look like they even stand a chance of getting drugs of the streets.....which they dont. One baron goes down, another takes his place, THATS how it works. The only people who need taking out are the abusive dealers; the one's who prey on the addicts and the weak to make sure they get their nice £20 note so that they can go buy more shit.

Its not a war, its a massacre.

And we're winning.

[Swimster]

LOL, they are probobly correct about cocaine being harder to sell because people are discovering methamphetamine! How about these figures BBC?? With tham restricting precursors in the U.S, I still see methamphetamine flowing, and we all know most comes from mexico. Perhaps the crashed plane in mexico was due to them getting rid of cocaine, they are probably just concentrating on the meth. In Swims oppinion. They just changed to a more powerful substances, the Gov will see they are being fooled!

[enquirewithin]

CELEBRATING THE HIGH PRICE OF COCAINE WITH THE DRUG CZAR


By Doug Snead and Stephen Young

http://drugsense.org/nl/show_dsw.php...ds07.n519#sec6

Federal drug czar John Walters got rather excited last week after a new report suggested the price of cocaine is increasing in many American cities.

The czar read the report as happy proof that prohibitionists can indeed make one of their policies work sort of the way it's supposed to work (as long as they've got several billion dollars and several years to help the project along).

But, as usual, there could be other explanations. First, it's curious that this report comes in just as drug war contractors salivate over plans to partner with Mexico in the drug war. After so many years of dismal failure in the stated goals of Plan Colombia, isn't it interesting that a little alleged success comes as the strategy is being sold to another country?

Of course there could be a simple economic explanation too, given the drug czar's troubled relationship with economic facts, we wouldn't be surprised if he just didn't get it (or just doesn't want to get it).

The value of the U.S. dollar is sinking like a stone against, well, most currencies. The dollar buys less gold, buys less oil, buys fewer Pesos or Loonies than it did before.

So why do these "Victory Over Drugs" articles fail to mention that?

The U.S. dollar is inflating fast. It is buying less stuff then it used to. So when the U.S. dollar also buys marginally less cocaine than it did before, U.S. Prohibitionists now take credit?

"That's right, it's our drug war that made cocaine prices rise ten whole percent!"

Yeah, just like that there drug war "Victory" just made the price of oil, gold, copper, and imports (etc, etc) all get more expensive (in U.S. dollars), too.

It is not the "drug war" that is making cocaine prices rise, it is the debasing and inflation of the U.S. dollar that takes care of that.
Most prohibitionists seem to unwilling to consider the most basic law of economics when it comes to their crusade; this specific instance doesn't seem unusual.

This perceived victory may bring little short-term excitement to the prohibitionists, but if the price of cocaine really is rising, there's another group who's going to be celebrating even harder: methamphetamine cartels looking for market share in the illicit stimulant trade.

[flipthecandy]

^^^ that post made me laugh. So the oil and gold prohibitionists are winning their respective wars as well? I bet my right testicle that when (if?) the US economy bounces back, and the price of cocaine etc falls, there will be NOTHING in the news about it. Just like how ridiculously cheap "ice" (nobody fucking calls its ice except the media, i mean crystal meth though) is in Australia at the moment. A point of street quality crystal is about the price of a 6 pack of beer.

The media is never going to report on a losing war though are they, whether it be Iraq, drugs, terror or the war on freedom.

Reputation Comments on this post:

rasied a interesting perspective about media

[dsl39uf]

Actually the (liberal) media here loves talking about how bad the was in Iraq is going. But as far as the drug war, hell, they're not going to say how futile that one really is.

Just because enough cocaine was intercepted to make prices increase does not mean that the drug war is working or being won. People who are addicts will pay the higher prices and drugs will continue to come into the country.

[Pat77235]

pfffft. that's why SWIM's glad he lives in oz.

[stoneinfocus]

In fact, they did win, the ydestrpoyed every peacful veryown youthculture and fucke into todays youth´s brains, so you canßt get speed anymore, the rave don´t exist, ther´re undercoveridiots everywhre and the mob, too, does its best so you won´t get lucky anymore, even when yo´re just believed to do drugs.

Why can´t the talbian be as strong as the USA is today over the worlds. *lol* they´d burn all wine-yards and plant opium poppies and cannabis.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Paranoid ramblings are only saved when you back them up

[Pat77235]

so you canßt get speed anymore, the rave don´t exist, ther´re undercoveridiots everywhre and the mob, too, does its best so you won´t get lucky anymore, even when yo´re just believed to do drugs

again, move to australia, and bring some drugs with you.

its good here

[flipthecandy]

yeah, what patty said! and bring some of that salvia shit you guys go on about...it sounds interesting!

bring shitloads of pseudoephedrine. true story: they took my grandmothers name and details and made her get out her ID and put these details in their little black government book to make sure she didnt have a meth lab in the retirement home!

[MrG]

One of the reasons they are so tight on these so-called 'precursors' is simply because it's so damn easy to catch people who order them.

Fat-Ass Lazy cop sitting in chair picks up phone to chem supplier tells them to send list of customers over.

Passes lists of customers to SWAT who then perform no-knock raids on the basis that one of 'em has gotta be makin' something illegal out of it. Right?

Getting a customer list off a drugs dealer is an entirely different affair, requiring much more effort.