Research by WOLA drug policy expert John Walsh on cocaine prices in the United States was cited in the current issue of The Economist.
The influential magazine cited Walsh’s work showing that four major increases in the street price for cocaine since the early 1980s were all quickly reversed. This pattern of price spikes followed by sudden drops, sometimes to levels lower than before the increase, suggests that the current rise in cocaine prices may be short-lived. Bush Administration officials have claimed a recent increase in retail cocaine prices as proof of the success of their policies, including U.S. support for aerial herbicide spraying of coca crops in Colombia.
To read the report in The Economist, click here .
WOLA’s most recent report on drug policy, “Chemical Reactions,” shows how aerial herbicide spraying has failed as a drug-control policy. Far from cutting coca cultivation, fumigation has contributed to the spread of coca cultivation to more areas of Colombia and to an increase in cocaine production levels since the late 1990s.
To read that report, click here .
