War on Drugs failing -- US Government

The National Drug Threat Assessment from the US Dept of Justice says the supply of all drugs except cocaine was increasing, and were being distributed through ever-widening dealer networks. This is despite constant budget increases for the War on Drugs since Richard Nixon declared the war around 40 years ago. Drug War warriors will use the assessment to demand yet more money to escalate the war. Reformers are using it as evidence that the WoD is lost and unwinnable.

Some points from the Assessment:

•Increased heroin availability evidenced by higher purity, lower prices, and elevated numbers of heroin-related overdoses and overdose deaths is partly attributable to increased production in Mexico from 17 pure metric tons in 2007 to 38 pure metric tons in 2008, according to U.S. Government estimates.

•Despite recent government of Mexico (GOM) efforts to prohibit the importation of methamphetamine precursor chemicals, methamphetamine availability increased as the result of higher production in Mexico using alternative, less-efficient precursors. Sustained domestic production also contributed to the increased availability levels.

•Marijuana production increased in Mexico, resulting in increased flow of the drug across the Southwest Border, including through the Tohono O'odham Reservation in Arizona.

•Asian drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are responsible for the resurgence in MDMA availability in the United States, particularly since 2005. These groups produce the drug in Canada and smuggle it across the Northern Border into the United States.

•Cocaine shortages have persisted in many U.S. drug markets since early 2007, primarily because of decreased cocaine production in Colombia but also because of increased worldwide demand for cocaine, especially in Europe; high cocaine seizure levels that continued through 2009; and enhanced GOM counterdrug efforts. These factors most likely resulted in decreased amounts of cocaine being transported from Colombia to the U.S.-Mexico border for subsequent smuggling into the United States.

Nevertheless Barack Obama has ruled out any Federal moves towards legalisation, while on the other hand continuing to tolerate the ever-growing medical marihuana movement in the 14 states which have legalised it.

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Conservative Fox News commentator John Stossel has a different take on it, documenting some of the outright lies the Drug Warriors tell to reinforce their industry.