The 310 pounds of cocaine found in a container downtown is drop in the bucket, a grain of coca in the nose of Baltimore's hipsters. From The White House's own drug enforcement page:
Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America.24 It is estimated that the amount of pure cocaine that could have been produced in the Andean region increased from 640 metric tons in 2004 to 780 metric tons in 2005.
....
During FY 2003, Federal agencies seized 245,499 pounds of cocaine under the Federal-wide Drug Seizure System (FDSS). FDSS contains information about drug seizures made within the jurisdiction of the United States by the DEA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Coast Guard.
Seizures like this are good things, and they do reduce, though minimally, the amounts of illegal drugs on our streets. But they don't affect the bottom line of drug importers, or disrupt the domestic drug trade in any way.
It makes me wonder why this story is being reported in such an uncritical way. Its freedom from context, in my opinion, makes it more of a propaganda press release from State police in support of their misguided drug war.
It would be like reporting on a story of police preventing one murder in Baltimore, without mentioning the 79 that have not been prevented this year. The seizure of $3 million of cocaine is enough to draw readers' attention, its just a shame that nothing is done with that attention in the story beyond further cementing support for a failing policy.
4 comments:
Right on. Even if it was more than a drop in the bucket, so what? Drug use is a consensual activity. The only problem with drug use that I can see has to do with the black market that the anti-drug laws have created. Violence is a product of the black market, not the drugs themselves.
I think it was reported in an uncritical manner because the purpose of the article was to give the public the impression that there is some effective law enforcement in this city of now 81 murders this year. I'm fairly certain the drugs were found as a result of a tip because port security including cargo inspection has clearly been super lax for decades. More seizures at the port would reduce the drugs on the street and the number of young men and women in body bags.
Mr. Kujan
I recommend that you educate yourself about the work that many agents are doing to capture tons of drugs that could enter into the United States of America.
It is very easy to sit behind a computer and type a list of what it is wrong with the war on drugs. Why don't you try to become a productive member of our society and type a potential solution to fix the problems that you have identified.
To the several anonymous visitors, I would ask you to read the extensive posting I have done on the so called "war on drugs". Simply check the tag "war on drugs" and you will see numerous posts offering both criticism and possible solutions.
A few in particular:
Link 1
Link 2
link 3
I do hope that you read those posts. Also, if you plan on commenting more than once here, at least sign or distinguish your posts in some way.
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