The war on cocaine only strengthens drug cartels: study
If youve spent nearly a half-century and $250 billion trying to stop the flow of cocaine into the United States, and the white powder is now cheaper and more plentiful than ever, maybe its time to rethink. Thats the implicit lesson lurking behind a new study on the impact of drug interdiction efforts on drug trafficking organizations.
Interdiction is the supply-side approach to reducing drug use. Rather than reducing demand through education, prevention, and treatment, interdiction seeks to reduce the supply of drugs available domestically by blocking them en route to the U.S. or at the border.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and conducted by scientists from a half-dozen American universities, the study relied on a computer model called NarcoLogic that shows how drug traffickers respond to interdiction strategies and tactics. More sophisticated than previous attempts to simulate the drug trade, NarcoLogic models local- and network-level trafficking dynamics at the same time.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/the-war-on-cocaine-only-strengthens-drug-cartels-study/