Headline: "Another Death Knell in the War on Drugs"

New York Times WASHINGTON - U.S. border inspectors searched slightly
more than a million commercial trucks and railway cars entering the
United States from Mexico last year. They found cocaine stashed in
cargo compartments on only six occasions, said Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
the White House director of drug-control policy....

Buying more sophisticated radar, scanning and night-vision equipment,
he said, would cost a fraction of the $2 billion that the government
already spends annually to combat border smuggling.

Dear New York Times,

When you report-from Gen. Barry McCaffrey himself-that last year U.S.
Customs searched over one million containers and found cocaine "on only six
occasions," no greater death knell to the War on Drugs could have been
sounded. How can we hope to stop drugs "at the border" when search-success
rates are 166,666 to 1? Gen. McCaffrey also mentions, in passing, that all
this costs taxpayers a mere $2 billion. That's slightly over $333 million
per bust. All to suppress a drug that is the almost-identical chemical
cousin to caffeine.

Peace on drugs.

Peter McWilliams