Cocaine shortage hits big cities

There is some good news on the nation's War on Drugs: A cocaine shortage.

From the Detroit Free Press:

The White House drug czar says a shortage of cocaine is being felt in dozens of cities across the nation, including Detroit, as law enforcement efforts in the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America disrupt trade.

John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy for the Bush administration, said if reports he is receiving from investigators are accurate, the scale of the cocaine shortage is unprecedented, covering at least 37 cities across the nation and forcing up prices. That, in turn, can lead to fewer people using the drug.

"This is on a wide scale," he said Tuesday. "Obviously we’re pleased. This means there are fewer people being harmed by the drug."

Although there was no way to strictly quantify the reports of the cocaine shortage, Walters' office said the average price of a kilogram of cocaine in Detroit was between $18,500 and $24,000 in the last three months of 2006 and has continued to rise substantially since then, by as much as 70%. Other cities seeing a shortage are New York, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Cleveland. In Michigan, Grand Rapids was also noted as seeing a shortage.

And because there is less cocaine to consume, the drug czar says there is less crime--probably because fewer people are coked up--and when the price of cocaine has goes up, more people seek help for their addiction.

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