Are interdiction and eradication efforts a success?
No. U.S. taxpayers have spent tens of billions of dollars on intense eradication and interdiction efforts, yet the prices of cocaine and heroin are the lowest they have been in 20 years and their street-level purity is at all time highs.(1) • Eradication and interdiction efforts have not reduced youth access to illegal drugs. The proportion of 12th graders reporting that it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy” for them to get cocaine if they wanted some rose from 33 percent in 1975 to about 50 percent in 1999. The percentage of 12th graders reporting heroin “fairly” or “very” easy to obtain rose from 20 percent to about 35 percent. Every year from 1975 to 1999, over 80% of high school seniors reported that marijuana was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain.(2) More than 54% of high school seniors have tried illicit drugs – up from 44% a decade earlier.(3) • Eradication and interdiction efforts have not stopped the drug trade from expanding. The global illegal drug trade is now a $40
