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Impact of Drug Interdiction Efforts
- Temple University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
According to Zaitch, drug smuggling is a very opportunistic and flexible enterprise. Astorga (2001) used historical data to describe drug trafficking in Mexico, also exploring similarities between smuggling and organized crime operations. His work characterized drug trafficking as a dynamic enterprise that is flexible in adapting to changes in political and economic forces as well as to interdiction efforts. He characterized efforts to describe drug trafficking as highly organized or as similar to organized crime as “myths” (71) and underscored the transitions in smuggling and smugglers’ methods in response to both interdiction efforts and sociopolitical forces. Impact of Drug Interdiction Efforts A limited number of studies have examined the impact of interdiction and eradication efforts on drug smuggling. This is, of course, a difficult enterprise, as it requires measuring changes in drug production, drug prices, and transit routes and costs. Reuter, Crawford, and Cave (1988) measured the impact of increased military participation in interdiction efforts and concluded that increasing the resources available to the military for this purpose is not likely to reduce significantly the availability of cocaine.They argued that only 10 percent of the cost of cocaine comes from transportation and, consequently, that increasing these costs is unlikely to drive smugglers out of the business or substantially increase their costs of doing business. The work of Rydell and Everingham (1994) confirmed that interdiction efforts had little or no effect on reducing the level of smuggling or the cost of cocaine. Even herbicide spraying was found to have little success in reducing the availability of cocaine (General Accounting Office, 1999).Two years of far-ranging herbicide spraying of cocaine in Colombia did not result in declines in coca production; indeed, production increased 50 percent at the conclusion of the two-year period. Because these studies measured deterrence in terms of drug production and seizures, there is concern that the impact of Motivation for the Study b 13 interdiction may be underestimated. In an effort to address this concern, Caulkins, Crawford, and Reuter (1993) modeled a smuggler response to interdiction efforts.They concluded that in order to achieve any deterrent effect, all routes available to smugglers must be heavily disrupted. A similar study undertaken by Evidence Based Research (1995) found that increases in interdiction resources produced very small reductions in the success of interdiction efforts as measured in the number of seizures. A related approach examined the effect of interdiction efforts on drug prices. The premise underlying such an approach is that measuring the direct response of drug producers and transporters is difficult because such data are fraught with measurement error. An alternative approach is to measure changes in the cost of drugs. This approach argues that successful interdiction efforts increase the cost of drugs by making transporters take alternative steps, change routes, employ more lookouts, use more sophisticated technology, and tolerate more seized loads. As a consequence of increased interdiction efforts, the costs of doing business and consequently the costs of drugs will escalate. Johnston, Rhodes, Carrigan, and Moe (1999) determined that price sensitivity to interdiction efforts varied by transit zone and other factors, but that overall it was difficult to conclude that interdiction was directly related to price increases. However, Layne, Rhodes, and Chester (2000) found support for the link between interdiction efforts and the price of the drug on the street. Using data provided by the U.S. Customs Service, they estimated the increase in the cost of transporting cocaine attributable to interdiction efforts. Based on reports of investigations from Customs, the study examined the impact of enforcement personnel, aircraft, and technologies on the price of cocaine.The authors found a direct relationship between enforcement activities and the costs of transportation. Specifically, each dollar spent on Customs enforcement produced a corresponding increase of thirty-seven cents in the cost of transportation. Riley (1993) summarized one response to this line of research by expressing skepticism that interdiction efforts achieve their goal. He argued that the combination of low production 14 b Chapter 1 ...