COCAINE DILEMMA ON PRICE

BBC News has printed something that I have trouble wrapping my logical mind around. It stated: "UK officials said last week that the price of cocaine had fallen by half in the last 10 years. The INCB said prices would continue to fall unless the supply was curtailed."

Don't we want drug dealers to make less profit? My conclusion is that I am no longer able to understand supply and demand in the context of an illegal drug. Are authorities believing that, if the price of drugs goes down, more people will use them? Is there any evidence to bear this out?" This screams to me that it is time to invest in drugs while the price is down because it is bound to go up if we are to believe our government.

On March 9, 2009, The Guardian printed an article which stated: "Cocaine production has surged across Latin America and unleashed a wave of violence, population displacements and corruption, prompting urgent calls to rethink the drug war." On the 13th the following retraction was printed:
"We reported that production of cocaine had increased by 16% across the whole of South America and said that was due to increases in supply from Bolivia and Peru. In fact the regional increase, recorded in a UN survey released last year, was due primarily to a 27% increase in coca production in Colombia. Much smaller increases of 5% in Bolivia and 4% in Peru were recorded"

Well, anyone can forget that Colombia is the major source of the drug problem and mistakenly assume with nothing to warrant the assumption that Bolivia and Peru are responsible. right? However, we need to understand that we are fighting a drug war, as well as a war on illegal immigration, a war for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction in Irag, and a war against terrorists in Afghanistan (the only war with real merit, though not a traditional war, since we really don't know who we are fighting.) To the best of my knowledge, little is said about how we are fighting these wars, other than the Iraq and Afghanistan. CBS reports that despite the drug war, drugs are getting cheaper. Is it the goal of the USA that drugs should get more expensive and make drug lords richer?


MEXICO UNDER SIEGE White House unveils plan to fight drug cartels at border

"The $700-million multi-agency plan targets drug and human trafficking and money laundering and aims to curb spillover of violence from Mexico into the U.S.
By Josh Meyer March 25, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration said Tuesday it is speeding hundreds of federal agents and intelligence analysts to the Mexican border, along with specialized technology, as part of an ambitious new plan to attack the powerful drug cartels and prevent violence from spilling into the United States."

On 3/30/2009, Marc Lacey wrote: "The cartels bring in billions of dollars more than the Mexican government spends to defeat them, and they spend their wealth to bolster their ranks with an untold number of politicians, judges, prison guards and police officers — so many police officers, in fact, that entire forces in cities across Mexico have been disbanded and rebuilt from scratch.

Over the past year, the country’s top organized crime prosecutor has been arrested for receiving cartel cash, as was the director of Interpol in Mexico. The cartels even managed to slip a mole inside the United States Embassy. Those in important positions who have resisted taking cartel money are often shot to death, a powerful incentive to others who might be wavering."

What would happen if suddenly all drugs were made legal? My guess is that all the politicians and others being paid off by the cartel will demand salary raises from their government jobs. The tragedy is that they will probably get them anyway.


"The cartels bring in billions of dollars more than the Mexican government spends to defeat them, and they spend their wealth to bolster their ranks with an untold number of politicians, judges, prison guards and police officers — so many police officers, in fact, that entire forces in cities across Mexico have been disbanded and rebuilt from scratch. Over the past year, the country’s top organized crime prosecutor has been arrested for receiving cartel cash, as was the director of Interpol in Mexico. The cartels even managed to slip a mole inside the United States Embassy. Those in important positions who have resisted taking cartel money are often shot to death, a powerful incentive to others who might be wavering."

Portugal made drugs legal and the drug usage has dropped markedly. The Netherlands also have a similar policy. Mexico drug war: cartels recruit child assassins Drugs don't make life prettier or kinder for most of us who don't use them, does it?