JD FOSTER: Stuck On Stupid In The War On Drugs

“Don’t get stuck on stupid,” advised Army Lt. General Russel Honore, brought in following Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 Louisiana landfall. America has been stuck on stupid in the “war on drugs” for a half century running.

The latest example is obliterating narco-boats. The videos are fascinating, but does this make any difference? Not. One. Bit.

Suppose President Trump orders every narco-boat in the Americas sunk. Would that help? Nope.

Sure, it would disrupt narcotics markets briefly, but then drug flows would resume, and street prices would return to normal.

Venezuela’s President Maduro is Trump’s latest worthy villain. Suppose Trump learned Maduro is hosting his narco buddies at a fancy Caracas hotel. Trump orders a cruise missile strike. The hotel is now rubble. Maduro has an unpleasant meeting with his maker. And America’s narcotics flows? Unaffected.

President Trump is a man of action. Illegal narcotics are a scourge. Trump acts in response, as have his predecessors since Richard Nixon launched the “war.” But Trump’s just shadowboxing, never landing a punch that matters.

The narcotics business is global, flexible, sophisticated, and incredibly profitable. Narco-chemists have infused cocaine into recycled plastic, resealed coconuts, and passion-fruit pulp, in each case to be re-extracted at final destination. You can’t stop that.

Over the years the primary counter strategies sought to restrict supply and so raise the drugs’ street price. But raising the price raises profits to those who succeed. This strategy comes with a built-in doom loop.

Nor does dinging their profits deter the cartels. A kilo of fentanyl might fetch 1,000 times laboratory costs. Determined interdiction might cut that to 900 times costs. Such losses are acceptable costs of doing business. Carry on.