David Borden [11], Executive Director
One such issue, simultaneously mundane (due to its omnipresence) and spectacular (also due to omnipresence) is that of police corruption driven by the profits and other incentives created by drug prohibition. Out of the 50 issues we published last year, 46 of them include "this week's corrupt cops stories [13]" reports, and three of the four off weeks were when Phil was traveling in Peru and Bolivia. Expect prohibition to corrupt our nation's institutions, as well as those of other countries and global institutions, non-stop until drugs are legalized.
Another issue is that of street prices for purchasing illegal drugs, a barometer albeit flawed of the impact of the drug war. The theory is that by attacking the source of drugs, by doing interdiction and by arresting dealers, the supply of drugs will be reduced and their price will increase, in turn reducing demand. The issue came up last year when the drug czar's office had the chutzpah to brag about an "unprecedented" increase in cocaine prices in 2007 compared to 2006. As analysts pointed out in response, it's not unprecedented -- it's not unprecedented at all, that was literally an outright lie -- and most importantly such increases have been utterly overwhelmed by the price decreases that occurred during most years. As I pointed out in an editorial last fall [14], in real terms the average street price of cocaine in the US has fallen by a whopping factor of five since the early 1980s when the price-tracking program was established. Expect the drug war to continue to fail to achieve its promised results -- even when measured on its own terms -- until the drug war is ended.
Speaking of the drug czar's office -- formally known as the Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, a branch of the White House -- 2007 saw the publication of a revealing book [15] detailing a stunning array of misrepresentations of facts and stats by ONDCP in its annual reports over the past several years. Thankfully -- and uncharacteristically -- mainstream media outlets including NPR and the Washington Post called ONDCP on their coke scam. Sadly, it was only one of the propaganda ploys ONDCP has pulled since the exposé book hit the shelves last March. As the agency's new deputy director pointed out this week, the current administration's team has "one more year [16]" to go on the job. I doubt the next administration's team will be much better, regardless of who wins the election, but you never know. If Bill Clinton's longest-serving drug czar [17] is an indicator, they won't be.
The drug war's most constant circumstances are also its most tragic: the prisoner's dreary day in and day out behind bars; the patient's pain, day in and day out, from denial of medicine; the despair of the child growing up in a poverty-blighted neighborhood plagued by drug trade violence. Our duty is to remember the quiet victims of prohibition, every day; to tell their stories to any and all who will hear them; to match the drug war's cruelty with constant work and constant compassion and constant hope.
When the time is ripe, the changes we are working for will come to be. And that will really be the top story of the year.