US drugs tsar John Walters has admitted that Washington's anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has so far failed.
Mr Walters said in Mexico that billions of dollars of investment over many years have failed to dent the flow of Latin American cocaine onto US streets.
We have not yet seen in all these efforts what we're hoping for on the supply side, which is a reduction in availability, he said in Mexico City.
But he predicted positive results would be seen within a year.
'Plan Colombia' failure
Mr Walters was speaking just after he had visited Colombia.
His comments can be seen as an admission that the so-called Plan Colombia has been a failure.
This initiative to wipe out drug smuggling gangs and eradicate coca crops has seen the Colombian government become the third largest recipient of US military aid in the world.
While praising Mexico's efforts to combat the drugs trade, Mr Walters also said that there'd been no notable disruption in the supply of drugs to the US.
Anti-narcotics raids had been successful in removing a number of important cartel leaders but had not led to any shortage.
However, Mr Walters said he hoped that there would be a decline in the amount of cocaine available in the United States over the next 12 months.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3540686.stm
Less drugs on the street with the same amount of people wanting to buy them will mean that the price of drugs go up. This in turn means that more people will want to sell them (more profit in them). It also means less people will be able to afford them and will have to resort to stealing car radios and petty theft to pay for their habit. It also means insurance costs will go up....
It's funny to see their hopes failing as actually being beneficial to the people in the States!
Why not destroy the profit margin on drugs? If no one can make a profit out of them, no one is going to want to sell them.
On a side note: fewer cartels with the same amount of drugs entering the States means that less cartels are making more drugs, which means they are making MORE money out of the scam, instead of less.
