ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS ARE FAILING IN DRUG BATTLE

Re: "'Nanaimo RCMP link huge drug bust to notorious gang' ( Daily
News, Jan. 18)

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 this 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 tonnes of
cocaine is consumed in North America annually, it could mean around
143.55 tonnes 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