Pubdate: Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Source: Peninsula News Review (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 William Perry
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/x9fPSyOK
Website: http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/peninsulanewsreview/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1373
Author: William Perry

COCAINE SEIZURES ARE A DROP IN THE BUCKET

Re: 12 kg of coke found in car (News, Jan. 11)

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 the 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 tons of 
cocaine is consumed in North America annually, it could mean around 
143.55 tons 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
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