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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica Has a Black-Market Problem, Not a Drug Problem
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/america-has-a-black-market-problem-not-a-drug-problem/284447/?n2ld33
General John F. Kelly, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, testified last week before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he argued, as generals tend to do, that he has inadequate resources to fulfill the missions assigned to him.
Here's how the Associated Press summed up his statement:
The U.S. doesnt have the ships and surveillance capabilities to go after the illegal drugs flowing into the U.S. from Latin America, the top military commander for the region told senators Thursday, adding that the lack of resources means he has to sit and watch it go by.
Gen. John Kelly told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he is able to get about 20 percent of the drugs leaving Colombia for the U.S., but the rest gets through.
Think about that.
Though the U.S. spends billions of dollars each year fighting the War on Drugs, and despite having done so for many years, 80 percent of the drugs from one of the countries we've focused on the most still gets through all of our interdiction efforts.
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America Has a Black-Market Problem, Not a Drug Problem (Original Post)
xchrom
Mar 2014
OP
The War on Drugs has been a miserable failure, at least at stopping drug sales and use.
LuvNewcastle
Mar 2014
#3
otherone
(973 posts)1. Can the failure rate really be that high?
Mercy
bemildred
(90,061 posts)2. Quite. nt
LuvNewcastle
(16,844 posts)3. The War on Drugs has been a miserable failure, at least at stopping drug sales and use.
It's made some other people very rich, however, and they want to continue riding that gravy train. I expect nothing to be done about this.