Supply Reduction and Drug Law Enforcement

Efforts to control the supply of drugs to illicit markets in the United States through law-enforcement measures must be evaluated from three different perspectives: their efficacy in reducing the availability of drugs in illicit markets; their impact on the wealth and power of ongoing criminal organizations; and their impact on foreign-policy objectives of the U. S. government. Available evidence suggests that supply-reduction efforts have been successful in dealing with heroin and, perhaps, with marijuana, but not yet with cocaine. Government efforts to attack the supply system include an international program to eradicate crops, interdiction of shipments crossing U. S. borders, investigations and prosecutions of high-level drug trafficking networks, and state and local enforcement efforts directed at street-level drug dealing. A portfolio of programs is stronger than any single program alone. The primary thrust of the effort must be to frustrate illicit transactions at every level and to immobilize those groups that seem to have solved the problem of executing reliable transactions.