REMOVING DRUG CARTELS FRUITLESS

It is obvious Tribune columnist Bill Richardson has never read the
most basic research on the war on drugs. Taking out the cartels will
be just as futile as taking out Al Capone. Yes, it makes us feel
good, but it doesn't change the price of drugs on the street.

We have busted Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, the Cali Cartel, the
Medellin Cartel, and Manuel Noriega, just to name a few. Not a single
bust made any real difference - with the exception of Noriega. In his
case, the flow of cocaine through Panama actually doubled after he
was busted. We would have done better to leave him alone.

President Richard Nixon had the same idea. He formed teams to go into
cities, do extensive investigation and then bust every drug dealer in
town. They did it several places and the results were always the
same. For about two weeks, the city was dry of drugs. Then new
suppliers began to move in and, by the end of 30 days, things were
entirely back to "normal" - except that the police no longer knew who
the drug dealers were.

The moral of the story is that there is an endless supply of people
willing to pursue the riches of the illegal drug trade. Busting one
cartel simply creates more room for two or three new cartels. We have
been there before and proven conclusively that it doesn't work.
According to the Rand Corp., of all the methods we could use to deal
with drugs, that is the least cost-effective.

Clifford Schaffer

DRCnet Online Library of Drug Policy