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Cocaine seizures a drop in the bucket

The Canadian and B.C. governments claim to making ground in the war on drugs

The Canadian and B.C. governments claim to making ground in the war on drugs, but a quick look at the estimates of regional cocaine flows suggests this is only a fraction of the amount which passes through America into the country.

These so-called “drug busts” are heralded as a trophies in the struggle authorities are waging against drug trafficking.

However, such self-congratulatory acts may not be entirely warranted.

If the percentage of seizures are applied to the United Nations Office on Drugs and the RCMP’s crime estimates that some 165 metric tons of cocaine is consumed in North America annually, it would mean that around 143 tons of the drug pass through Honduras into the U.S.A and Canada, potentially, annually.

The claims represents a drop in an Olympic size swimming pool of the total cocaine shipped, and has only worsened in recent years.

This is unlikely to change in the future, as the governments are notoriously in denial. In addition, are the thousands of illegal weapons that have ended up on the black market. Maybe it is time for a re-think?

William Perry

Victoria