TANDY'S NEW DRUG-WAR STRATEGY IS OLD NEWS

Newly appointed Drug Enforcement Chief Karen P. Tandy has announced that
her goals will be to target drug organizations, dry up their money supply,
and dismantle them entirely.

Wow! What a novel and profound idea! Now, why in the world didn't previous
DEA chiefs think of that before now?

But wait a minute! I think they did! What about all the cartels that have
been targeted and destroyed since Tandy graduated from law school in 1977,
six years after President Nixon declared war on drugs? Do the Medellin and
Cali cartels come to mind? And what about all the drug lords who have been
busted over the years, such as Carlos Lehder and Antonio Noriega? Surely
Tandy knows about them.

And what about the asset-forfeiture laws, whose fruits have been used to
fund drug-enforcement agencies for years? Surely Tandy is also familiar
with them.

If these things haven't proven successful after 30 years of drug warfare,
why should we expect them to prove successful in the future?

One big problem, of course, is that they don't teach economics in most law
schools in the country. If they did, Tandy would know that even if the
government succeeds in knocking off drug organizations or drug kingpins
there will always be more waiting in the wings to take their place.

Why? Because exorbitant black-market profits inevitably arise from the
artificially high black-market prices of the illegal drugs. In fact, the
more the government cracks down on drug organizations and drug lords, the
higher the price goes, which attracts even more drug organizations and drug
lords.

Despite any good intentions she might have, the result will be the same for
Tandy as it has been for all other drug-war chiefs for the last 30 years.
It's called the law of supply and demand.

Think about all the record drug busts that the drug warriors have made for
the past 30 years of drug warfare. Think about how the DEA trumpeted those
drug busts as great successes in the war on drugs. Think about how they
were used to justify ever-increasing budgets for the DEA.

Now ask yourself: Did any of them do anything to reduce the supply of
drugs? Did any of them result in victory in the war on drugs?

In fact, just recently, we've read that Bolivian authorities have seized 5
tons of cocaine in a record drug bust and that U.S. officials have indicted
one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels, the Zambada-Garcia
organization, and arrested 240 people as part of that drug bust.

That's all great, but haven't we heard this a thousand times before? And
would someone mind explaining to me why new record drug busts are
considered a success in the decades-long war on drugs?

For the past 30 years, the drug war has destroyed countless lives and
wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Karen Tandy's appointment as
the new DEA chief reminds us of another downside to the war - the horrible
waste of lives devoted to what is arguably the most nonproductive and
destructive government program in U.S. history. We'd be doing both Tandy
and the world a favor by bringing it to an end.