Sure, Interdiction works. There's also a
tooth fairy and enough prayer and
meditation can coax water to flow uphill.

As the editorial stated, an 80 percent
success rate in intercepting cocaine bound
for Puerto Rico can't be verified, because
no one knows the total shipped. Even if
the alleged rise in cocaine's street price
is true, it would have to be sustained for
an extended period and matched by
reductions of drug flow through other
corridors to be meaningful. That has never
happened in the past.

Examined over time, interdiction has never
been anything but a costly failure. One
need only look at the annual increase in
the federal drug budget and compare it
with the increasing size and purity of the
shipments seized. These are fairly hard
numbers and indicate that, despite a
tenfold increase in the budget since 1980,
the illegal drug industry now delivers a
cheaper, purer product to the streets of
North America than ever before.
Interdiction is busywork for the Drug
Enforcement Administration, but not much
else.

Thomas J. O'Connell
San Mateo, CA