Cocaine Price, Availability Unaffected by Plan Colombia September 23, 2005
News Summary
Billions of U.S. tax dollars spent on the Bush Administration's "Plan Colombia" has failed to put any dent in cocaine street prices or availability, the Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 18.Drug traffickers have adapted to beefed-up law enforcement, finding new routes for shipping drugs via speedboats and ships when police focused on land and air routes. And observers say a coca crop-spraying program paid for by the U.S. government has had little effect on drug supply.
The Bush administration has called the five-year-old spraying program a success -- the United Nations said spraying has cut the number of acres cultivated for coca in half -- but just as much cocaine is available on the street, and at about the same price and purity. In fact, a gram of cocaine costs less on the street today than it did in 2000. "We anticipate a gradual impact," said David Murray, an assistant to U.S. drug czar John Walters.
"They spray heavily in a [Colombian state] like Putumayo or Guaviare, but you keep seeing it pop up in new departments like Meta," said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Center for International Policy. "A lot of the new coca-growing in new areas is not being detected." Some sources say growers are planting in small plots, which are hard to find, and also have developed a new strain of coca that produces higher drug yields.
After spending $3 billion on Plan Colombia to date, the Bush administration is asking Congress to continue funding the project. "The plan is producing results," Bush said during a recent meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, citing increased numbers of cocaine seizures. In 2005, 45 tons of cocaine have been seized in joint U.S.-Colombian maritime operations, up from 33 tons in all of 2004. The Colombian Navy seized an additional 23 tons on its own.
However, that still means that about 420 tons of seaborne cocaine are eluding authorities, half of which goes to the U.S. These sea shipments alone would satisfy two-thirds of U.S. demand for the drug.
The Senate Appropriations Committee may be balking at Bush's request for more funding of Plan Colombia, noting that "the aerial eradication program is falling far short of predictions and that coca cultivation is shifting to new locations ... There is no indication that the quantity of cocaine entering the United States has decreased."
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