Problems with U.S. drug policy

In a story that is getting less play because of all the immigration hubbub, even a key Plan Colombia supporter (Senator Charles Grassley) is contradicting the cheery report of John Walters, the U.S. “drug czar.”

Incidentally, when and why did the term “drug czar” come into use? Why czar, and not king, emperor, or maybe shah?

Anyhow, the czar claimed that purity of cocaine was down, and the price was up. U.S. drug policy is based on the idea that if we drive prices high enough, then people will stop using, so price hikes are a way of measuring “success” (whether that can ever work is, of course, another issue).

See Adam Isacson’s blog for a good discussion of how the numbers were being spun. He includes a final tidbit about immigration, namely that President Uribe suggested implanting microchips in the bodies of seasonal workers to keep track of them.