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Obama appointees offer more of the same on drug interdiction

I was critical during the campaign of Barack Obama's drug policy stances, so even though I'm disappointed at the contents of his administration's new "National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy," released yesterday at a press conference by Obama's drug czar, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, I'm not surprised to see them proposing more of the same.This is a tactical document with few if any new strategic elements. They're fiddling around the edges of policies perpetuated by the last four presidents, but nobody appears to be rethinking the fundamental approach.In a black market, focusing solely on supply-side enforcement ironically enriches the cartels by driving up prices. Because of the volume of cross-border traffic involving legitimate trade and travel, it's literally impossible to interdict most drug shipments, so the the cartels just charge more for the shipments that make it through...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 06, 2009 (boomark / email).