Drug Control

The portion of the federal drug budget devoted to reducing the flow of drugs into the United States has almost doubled during the past five years, and funding for the Pentagon's detection and monitoring missions has soared more than 400 percent since 1989. Yet cocaine remains affordable, its purity remains high, and it continues to be readily available on American streets. The failure to reduce the amount of cocaine entering the country is the combined result of (1) the enormous profits that make interdiction losses relatively inconsequential to drug traffickers and (2) the inability of the United States to counter successful smuggling methods. Some level of interdiction effort must be maintained, not only as a symbolic gesture of national resolve but also as a key part of the national strategy for combatting the cocaine cartels. The level of that effort, however, should be commensurate with the relative contribution that interdiction is making--and can be expected to make--to the national war on drugs. GAO testified that additional investments in air and maritime surveillance will not substantially improve drug interdiction.