COCAINE SEIZURES ARE A DROP IN THE BUCKET

Re: 12 kg of coke found in car (News, Jan. 11)

The Canadian and B.C. governments claim to be making ground in the
war on drugs, but a quick look at the estimates of regional cocaine
flows suggests this is only a fraction of the amount which passes
through America into the country.

These so-called drug busts are heralded as a trophies in the struggle
which authorities are waging against drug trafficking.

Such self-congratulatory acts may not be entirely warranted. If the
percentage of seizures are applied to the United Nations Office on
Drugs and the RCMP's crime estimates that some 165 metric tons of
cocaine is consumed in North America annually, it could mean around
143.55 tons of the drug pass into the U.S. and Canada annually. The
claims thus represent a drop in an Olympic size swimming pool of
cocaine and has only worsened in recent years.

This is unlikely to change in the future, as the governments are
notoriously in denial. Maybe it is time for a re-think?

William Perry

Victoria