https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/415/badstats.shtml

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is challenging the Bush administration's claims of progress in reducing the flow of cocaine to the United States. The report, commissioned by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), raises doubts about the accuracy of US government data on cocaine trafficking, price, and purity levels.

About 90% of cocaine consumed in the US comes from Colombia. Six years and $6 billion dollars into Plan Colombia, cocaine remains cheap and plentiful here. Administration officials have used a variety of statistics to attempt to show progress in fighting the traffic. Last month, US drug czar John Walters announced that the price of cocaine in the US had risen 19% this year after massive fumigation of crops and record cocaine seizures last year.

But the GAO said the data used to arrive at such figures is "problematic," the numbers on US drug use tend to be stale, and they are difficult to obtain. While the report does not say Walters' claims of success are wrong, it casts doubt on the numbers used to make those claims. "Production and consumption estimates could be widely off the mark," the report found. The GAO also found US government estimates that between 325 and 675 metric tons of cocaine entered the US last year were so broad as to be useless.

The report also warned that aging equipment and competing priorities is causing the US military to cut back on resources devoted to combating the cocaine traffic. The Navy's P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, for instance, flew less than half the hours monitoring drug smuggling routes this year than last year, and ships and planes used in the effort are aged and wearing out, the report found.

"Having to question whether the data used by ONDCP is reliable or not makes it very difficult to assess and ensure that our efforts to combat drug production and transportation are effective," Sen. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate International Narcotics Control caucus, told the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain after reviewing the report.

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