CELEBRATING THE HIGH PRICE OF COCAINE WITH THE DRUG CZAR

Federal drug czar John Walters got rather excited last week after a
new report suggested the price of cocaine is increasing in many
American cities.

The czar read the report as happy proof that prohibitionists can
indeed make one of their policies work sort of the way it's supposed
to work (as long as they've got several billion dollars and several
years to help the project along).

But, as usual, there could be other explanations. First, it's
curious that this report comes in just as drug war contractors
salivate over plans to partner with Mexico in the drug war. After so
many years of dismal failure in the stated goals of Plan Colombia,
isn't it interesting that a little alleged success comes as the
strategy is being sold to another country?

Of course there could be a simple economic explanation too, given the
drug czar's troubled relationship with economic facts, we wouldn't be
surprised if he just didn't get it (or just doesn't want to get it).

The value of the U.S. dollar is sinking like a stone against, well,
most currencies. The dollar buys less gold, buys less oil, buys
fewer Pesos or Loonies than it did before.

So why do these "Victory Over Drugs" articles fail to mention that?

The U.S. dollar is inflating fast. It is buying less stuff then it
used to. So when the U.S. dollar also buys marginally less cocaine
than it did before, U.S. Prohibitionists now take credit?

"That's right, it's our drug war that made cocaine prices rise ten
whole percent!"

Yeah, just like that there drug war "Victory" just made the price of
oil, gold, copper, and imports (etc, etc) all get more expensive (in
U.S. dollars), too.

It is not the "drug war" that is making cocaine prices rise, it is
the debasing and inflation of the U.S. dollar that takes care of that.

Most prohibitionists seem to unwilling to consider the most basic law
of economics when it comes to their crusade; this specific instance
doesn't seem unusual.

This perceived victory may bring little short-term excitement to the
prohibitionists, but if the price of cocaine really is rising,
there's another group who's going to be celebrating even harder:
methamphetamine cartels looking for market share in the illicit
stimulant trade.