Glass half overflowing

The UN reports that coca cultivation has increased in Bolivia (5%), Colombia (27%) and Peru (5%). The U.S. government, however, retorts that this is a really good sign. Why? Follow the twisted path of drug policy logic.

John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, argues that if coca production goes up, it means farmers are planting more because the Colombian government’s eradication efforts are so successful. More pressure means more planting.

This is the same John Walters who, in 2003, said that the decrease of coca cultivation in Colombia represented a “turning point.”

John Walters in 2008: “The cocaine industry is under stress,'' said John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. ``It can't produce at the same level.''

John Walters in 2003: “We are seeing evidence of stress in the Colombian cocaine industry. Some farmers are abandoning coca cultivation in major coca growing areas.”

The lesson here should be obvious to anyone, and it’s wonderful news. No matter what we do, or how coca cultivation rises and falls, we’re winning the drug war!