The Idiocy of Using a $200 Billion Navy to Enforce a 140× Cocaine Premium
by David Stockman
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-01-09>>
*** begin quote ***
Stated differently, the idiots behind Prohibition—from alcohol to cocaine and heroin—believe that they can win by defying the law of supply and demand.
*** and ***
And that gets us to the absurd economics of the so-called War on Drugs. In this case, we are talking about using hundreds of thousands of domestic law enforcement personal led by the DEA, thousands of Coast Guard and other border patrol and now $40 billion Navy carrier battle-groups to hunt down 312,000 pounds of a drug that is no more lethal than alcohol!
After all, the US governments at all levels spends an estimated $100 billion per year on the War on Drugs. So even if just 20% of that is directly against the cocaine traffic, that’s nearly $320,000 per pound of cocaine interdicted!
That’s surely stupid enough, but it’s not even the half of it. Spending that much on policing, interdiction and supply destruction drives the price skyward.
*** and ***
The folly described above is not an isolated mistake but a symptom of a system that no longer understands economics, incentives, or limits. An empire that misuses power abroad while debasing its currency at home inevitably reaches for coercion when the bill comes due.
*** end quote ***
Like Vietnam, the Gooferment should just leave the War on Drugs or the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” by declaring “victory” and saying the problem is no longer “out of control” or “significant”. We all know that the Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. As well as untrustworthy. So why not let it “lie” its way out of a stupid policy?
— 30 —
Posted by reinkefj 
Reinke Faces Life 