INCREASING DANGER OF COCAINE NO REASON TO CELEBRATE

U.S. Drug Czar John Walters worked the phone with major media
reporters yesterday to share seemingly good cocaine news: prices are
up, purity is down. The drug war, he suggested, is doing what it's
supposed to do.

According to data released by the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, the street-level price of cocaine rose by 19 percent from
February to September. That means a gram of cocaine rose from just
over $120 last April to more than $170 in September.

Not exactly the dramatic increase I experience with gas prices during
the same period, but I understand, the folks at the ONDCP are starved
for good news. They are also happy that cocaine purity is down 15 percent.

Various news outlets quoted typically vague but emotional analysis
from Walters. "What we see on the streets of the United States is
the clear and irrefutable evidence of a change in availability that
will help us reduce demand and will change the profitability of the
cocaine market for those who make money off the death and destruction
of lives through addiction," Walters told Reuters.

Some mainstream media stories mention the expense of Plan Colombia, a
U.S. military aid package that has cost taxpayers about $4 billion
since 2000. None of the stories I read mentioned the human and
environmental price of dumping herbicide across large swaths of land
where people are trying to scrape out a living.

Is the cost worth the alleged success? I don't think so, but even if
we put that aside (along with other questions, like: Is the data
really good? Did Plan Colombia cause the price increase? Can this be
yet another temporary blip, or have we really "turned the corner"?),
let's try to look at it from the drug czar's perspective.

If it's true, and the supply of cocaine is being limited in a way
that impacts prices, we should ask, do we really want more expensive,
less pure cocaine on the streets?

Both those conditions lead to problems. Less pure cocaine means more
cutting agents, which can be riskier for users. More expensive
cocaine means users who can't afford the increases may turn to
illegal means to finance their use. Other users will move on to
cheaper, and possibly more dangerous substitutes, like
methamphetamine, increasing demand on that front.

Exporters and dealers will see profits increase in a fragmented
market, spurring competition. (I love how Walters spins this ever so
carefully in his statement: the increased prices "...will change the
profitability of the cocaine market for those who make money..."!
Business owners throughout the world would love to "change the
profitability" of their markets, if only they had their own
high-level bureaucrat consciously working to artificially raise prices.)

To me, it doesn't sound like there's much to be happy about, unless
the ultimate goals are to perpetuate prohibition and maximize harm.
Even when the drug war goes according to plan, the rare successes can
be just as dangerous as the frequent failures.