The Bush administration recently said that cocaine supplies have tightened and prices are rising, but officials in some U.S. cities are unconvinced of the federal government's claim of an "unprecedented cocaine shortage," NPR reported Dec. 26.

In December, U.S. drug czar John Walters announced that, "The latest DEA reporting indicates a sharp increase in the street price of cocaine, with a 44 percent increase reported in price per pure gram between January and September of 2007." Walters said that drug "seizures are having a profound effect on availability of drugs in the U.S."

"I don't believe that we've ever seen this price/purity phenomenon over a 10-month period," said Michael Braun, the DEA's chief of operations. "This could all change next month. I hope that it doesn't. I don't think that it will."

The Office of National Drug Control Policy, headed by Walters, said that cocaine supplies are down in 37 cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids. But when NPR contacted officials in those cities, just 10 agreed that there was a scarcity of cocaine, including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco.

 "In the last six months it has become less available than it was at the beginning of the year," said Lt. Daniel Simfer, commander of the vice/narcotics unit in the St. Louis Police Department. "The price has increased accordingly, probably by about a third."

Officials in five of the 37 cities said they have detected no decline in cocaine supply, while police in 18 cities qualified their responses -- noting, for example, that even if supply is down, it hasn't had much effect on drug use or dealing. (Officials in four cities refused to answer questions about local cocaine supply.)

"I spoke to my detectives out there in the streets making buys, and we all kind of agreed that if there's a shortage here in Pittsburgh, we are not aware of it and don't find that necessarily to be true," said Commander Sheryl Doubt of the Pittsburgh Police Department.

Law-enforcement officials in Denver, Houston and Philadelphia said that cocaine supply appears to be rising again after a summer swoon, and prices are going down again. And an official in the National Drug Intelligence Center added, "Cocaine availability appears to have returned to previous levels in some, but not all, drug markets, as traffickers reestablish stable sources of supply and distribution networks."

Walters dismissed the conflicting local reports as hearsay, not data, but former ONDCP budget director John Carnevale said that there's little chance that any increase in cocaine prices will be sustained.

"One, the long-term trend adjusted for purity has been one of decline," he said. "It just keeps coming down and coming down. Two, there's been occasional moments where we've seen spikes in cocaine prices, and they may last three months, four months, five months — but eventually the trend continues to decline."