White Lines…

Libertarians are not drug addicted burnouts, but we are often harsh critics of the “war on drugs.” I said, publicly and recently, that I am not opposed to legalizing drugs. I said that our “war on drugs” is a resource draining initiative. I have seen lives destroyed over a weekend of partying. And I have seen lives destroyed when overzealous officers wish to keep funding. Recent news lines include articles that read: Meth still No. 1 drug problem. And more recent news tells us that cocaine seizures are largest ever in Dallas.

Officers are hailing two drug busts that netted about 654 pounds of cocaine as the largest such seizures in Dallas police history, worth an estimated $13.3 million on the street.

654 pounds is nearly five of me. That is a lot of blow. If it is real. Maybe I am cynical, but I just don’t see somebody meandering through Dallas streets with > $1M uncovered in the bed of a pickup. Let’s face it; the war on drugs has made drug dealing a VERY profitable business, and dealers are much smarter than getting busted with that much inventory. I want to see that it is 654 pounds of coke, but it will take lab tests to show me that DPD is not trying to steal my cash.

posted Jul 20th, 2006 by michelleshinghal
  • vforvandyke

    The more they seize, the more they ship. End of debate on prohibition.

    I’m beginning to think the cartels have chosen to win the drug war by completely overrunning the system and breaking it at its seams. It might be working.

  • http://riotstories.com Yizmo Gizmo

    If you want to get real and maybe piss off
    law-enforcement types, call for the
    “regulation” of drugs as they are considering in Nevada.
    The “Drug War” pushes the drugs into the
    realm of non-regulation or criminal regulation
    as opposed to dealing with them.
    Machine guns-and-marijuana is a growing trend.
    Blame the Prohibitionists. That’s what you get
    with the “Drug War.”

  • DAP

    Stephen: It is in the cartels’ interest to lose the drug war, that way they keep getting huge profits.

  • http://www.cleanleon.org/ Gabe J

    Now, Now, losing a war doesn’t make anyone money. The profit is in fighting a war.

    I am blown away by this one. I wold estimate the street value of this 297 kilos of coke to be about 14.5 million, though the cat who had it in posession probably would hve only gotten about 4.5 million (tops). Cops have begun UNDERESTIMATING the value of their busts? going by the standard cop formula (which i have devised through years of examination of how much cops overinflate teh quantity and/or value of drugs) they should have reported a street value of roughly 10 billion dollars.

  • Devious David

    As Gabe J said, the REAL profit is in prosecuting the war. That’s the purpose of the whole thing and why it will perpetuate, no matter what the public opinion on it may be.

    The State overlooks the fact that such thing give rise to 4th Generation forces which may transmogrify their goals from one of money & power relegated to primarily the drug trade to money & power in general. We are seeing a crisis of The State, for better or worse. The most shining example of this is the current Israeli conflict. Understanding this, we should capitalize and prepare.

  • kaptinemo

    Gabe’s observation is starting to catch on elsewhere in the media…and has drawn return fire from the highest levels of the DrugWar food chain.

    That the head of the DEA felt it necessary to try to rebutt Ms. Harrop’s article gives an idea of just how deep Ms. Harrop’s editorial knife cut to the bone. The DrugWarriors don’t weant those memes of ‘inefficient’ and ‘self-serving’ sticking to them, because when it comes time to do some serious budget cutting, the DEA has had plenty of bureaucratic black marks these past 3 years. The kind that would suddenly become very important to some pol trying to look as if he is cutting Gub’mint waste.

  • michelleshinghal

    You only need to look at Prohibition to see that criminalizing an activity suppresses it, and legalization increases it. Karen P. Tandy, Administrator, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

    Ms. Tandy must be high.

  • Dougman

    Ms. Tandy must be profiting handsomely from this so-called drug war. Why not legalize everything, sell it out of some distribution point (liquor stores?) and tax the hell out of it? There will always be an element of society (maybe 5%) that will do drugs whether they are legal or not. These prohibitionists just want to hang onto their cushy “jobs” at the expense of someone else.

  • Paul Pace

    I was with you up until the “tax the hell out of it” part. Wouldn’t that just continue the drug war, albeit possibly reducing it to a “conflict”? Take a look at ciggarettes in New York City, for example. They taxed the hell out of them, and now the underground market is huge.

  • kaptinemo

    Nearly every DrugCzar has, after completing their ‘public service’, jumped straight into the welcoming arms of the very same companies that support the prison/industrial complex. Companies which would not exist at all were it not for the impetus of the DrugWar.

    The idea that Ms. Tandy will not follow in the footsteps of her predecessors is unlikely; they have made ‘featherbedding’ and folding ‘golden parachutes’ into an art.

  • kaptinemo

    Oh, and as to regularly under-reporting the amounts of interdicted illicits, given the fact that each major bust has increased in size, sometimes by a factor of two or more, it has become evident to even the dimmest media wonk that with increasing numbers of captured contraband comes the realization that production far outstrips the ability of John Law to intercept.

    In short, it’s getting embarassing. The only thing that needs to happen is for some media wonks being jarred from their somnambulism (caused by lazily eating DrugWarrior propaganda handouts and not doing their own homework) and pointing out this fact.

  • http://imnotparanoiditstrue.blogspot.com/ Ryan B.

    Karen Tandy already claims she almost has the DEA profitable thanks to asset forfeiture and seziurses. Shouldn’t we all be glad the person in charge of the DEA is so proud of the job she is doing and the money she is trying to save us by taking our stuff.

  • http://www.winecommonsewer.com The Wine Commonsewer

    My kid is making a meth lab for his 5th grade science project.

  • http://somewhat-hypothesis.com colson

    It’s funny – have a whole different approach on prohibition that I was just blogging about: it makes the problem of manufactured drugs worse than it possibly could be. Ecstacy (otherwise known as MDMA) was more of a problem based on the fact that you never knew what you were going to get. When governments dictate what drug is ok and which drugs are not, the ones that are not (deemed bad) end up going to the weekend chemist’s lab to be manufactured which imposes greater risks to the individual and other parties within proximity than would be done if it were done in a well regulated lab environment.

    There generally is no measure of quality control except by how the user defines the quality of the product. Even as those who manufacture drugs such as cocaine have invested heavily in scientific approaches to maximize potency the “cut” is the major problem as it introduces externalities into the process. Prohibition is generally the cause moreso than the cure of all drug related ills.

  • blowmedown

    “I said, publicly and recently, that I am not opposed to legalizing drugs.”

    Ha! Is this the kind of mealy-mouthed statement of principle that is to be expected from the “Reformed Losertarian Party”? I wish I was surprised…

    -BM

  • michelleshinghal

    BM, My complete statement was that people who want to try drugs are going to do so whether or not there is a law against it. Government should not dictate what is appropriate for the body. Not food, smoke or even drugs.

  • http://bostontea.us/ Wendy Terry

    I read that Yahoo article on meth the other day. After reading it, I felt it necessary to click “discuss” and was pleasantly surprised at the number of postings calling for an end of the drug war. There was (there’s always that “one”) calling for the death penalty for druggies. But there was posting after posting of comments about how the drug war makes the problem worse, etc.

  • Julian

    I’ve said before and I will say it again, legalize all drugs and require no prescriptions for any of them.

    Any substance that alters the mind or body causing a feeling of euphoria or well being should be distributed freely to anyone that wants to partake with no restrictions.

    What a concept for eliminating the weak from society, not by force but by their own choice. It would make our country cleaner and safer. One rule, though, no dilution of the strength or purity to speed up the process of culling the dregs.

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