lazymanc
13-05-09, 06:09 PM
Dunno if anyone saw this story yesterday: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8044275.stm
If you can't be ar**d to read the article the gist is, due to various seizures etc by the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), the price of wholesale cocaine has increased from £39,000 to £45,000 a kilo. SOCA are making a song and dance about this as if it's a big win for them.
It also goes on to say that this has not had an effect on street prices because the dealers just cut what they have with more cutting agents (which include insecticide and rat poison!). This also means that the dealers either make the same money they always have, or in some cases more because the dependant users have to buy more to get the same effect.
Making the street level product less-pure makes it more dangerous to take due to the nasty crap they cut it with, so the end result will more than likely be more drug-related deaths.
For me this is just absolutely crazy - it's costing a huge amount of money (£400 million in the 3 years since it was formed) to run this agency, but it's had zero effect on demand, and every person they lock up is replaced by a dozen other dealers.
Is it time to accept that this so called "war on drugs" is a completely un-winable and pointless charade?
If you can't be ar**d to read the article the gist is, due to various seizures etc by the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), the price of wholesale cocaine has increased from £39,000 to £45,000 a kilo. SOCA are making a song and dance about this as if it's a big win for them.
It also goes on to say that this has not had an effect on street prices because the dealers just cut what they have with more cutting agents (which include insecticide and rat poison!). This also means that the dealers either make the same money they always have, or in some cases more because the dependant users have to buy more to get the same effect.
Making the street level product less-pure makes it more dangerous to take due to the nasty crap they cut it with, so the end result will more than likely be more drug-related deaths.
For me this is just absolutely crazy - it's costing a huge amount of money (£400 million in the 3 years since it was formed) to run this agency, but it's had zero effect on demand, and every person they lock up is replaced by a dozen other dealers.
Is it time to accept that this so called "war on drugs" is a completely un-winable and pointless charade?