Drug war trumps port safety. Great, concise read.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

This is another argument against the "war on drugs"....it is actually compromising our port safety. And, it's unsuccessful.

Drug war trumps port safety
By Mike Krause

>snip
But it is hard to take seriously the idea that ports are being effectively protected when the Coast Guard spent more tax dollars last year fighting the war on drugs than has been spent in total on port security since Sept. 11, 2001.

>snip

Needless to say, Coast Guard ships chasing dopers around the Galapagos Islands are obviously unavailable to meet a potential threat approaching the American coast.

>snip

What the seizure statistics and the massive range of cocaine flow estimates (between 325 and 675 metric tons of cocaine a year in the transit zone) - along with price and availability of cocaine in the U.S. - suggest is that more cocaine is getting through than ever before.

So not only does cocaine interdiction distract the Coast Guard from its port security mission, cocaine interdiction itself is failing.

More at the link.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_3586569

[Ufomammut]

1. You betchya!

They already know what will or won't "happen" regarding "terrorism" and al-CIA-da, so why should they blow that dwindling dough on a ruse that gets in the way of what the War Pigs really love to do domestically: find a new home for that ever growing segment of the populace ..the poor!

Imprisoning non violent, first time offenders is a major growth indestroy in Amerika, with more casual pot smokers locked away under Clinton than any admin before.

[OneBlueSky]

6. the "war on drugs" is a positively laughable construct . . .

in a nation where the pharmaceutical industry (along with oil companies and "defense" contractors) practically owns the government and spends untold billions each year peddling their grossly inflated products to every man, woman and child within within earshot of their house organs (i.e. the corporate media) . . .

[enfield collector]

2. we've lost the drug war. time to legalize the stuff, tax it and

use the tax money to pay for treatment and funding a world class public health system.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. The author knows first hand the uselessness of "interdiction"

Mike Krause is a veteran of the Coast Guard, and participated in numerous joint-agency drug patrols in the Caribbean Sea

MKJ

[Ufomammut]

4. Off topic

...saw the "Tom Servo" avatar and had to comment - MST3K was the most back in the early/mid 90s!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

7. The writers would have a field day if the show were still around. Pairing

moronic movies and the idiocy of gwb, et. al.

It would almost be too easy..:) MKJ

[Ufomammut]

8. Indeed

Best Brains were pretty sharp...not quite as subversive as the show could've been, however, that's a minor criticism given the "reality" TV strain that covered the pop culture landscape like a bad rash.

We still dig out a few "Misty" Christmas episodes around the holidays, my daughter enjoys Crow T Robot :)

[TreasonousBastard]

5. I've been saying for years that...

if we can't stop the smuggling of everything from fake Rolexes to heroin to containers of Chinese refugees that we know is coming in, how the hell are these hamburgers supposed to stop one small bomb that may or may not be coming in?

It's all bullshit behind smoke and mirrors.