This is SOCA’s idea of success?

by | May 12, 2009


The Serious Organised Crime Agency has been trumpeting to the BBC that the international cocaine market is “in retreat” after a year of successful operations around the world:

It says its undercover work has helped send wholesale prices soaring. Prices per kilo have risen from £39,000 in 2008 to over £45,000 (50,000 euros), but street prices have remained stable.

What this means in practice:

Data collected by the Forensic Science Service reveals how drug gangs are using increasing amounts of chemicals – so-called cutting agents – to dilute cocaine powder sold on the streets of Britain. They include the cancer-causing drug phenacetin, cockroach insecticide and pet worming powder.

Analysts at Drugscope say the shortage of supply has not seen a fall in street prices although purity levels have dropped.  “At the moment price is relatively stable for cocaine,” says Drugscope director Martin Barnes.  “What is happening is that dealers are maximising their profits by selling a product that is potentially more harmful and much less pure and a lot of people buying it probably don’t realise that’s what’s going on.”

Brilliant.  A triumph.  Well done SOCA; well done indeed.

(For what a non-asinine approach to drug control would look like, click here.)

Author

  • Alex Evans

    Alex Evans is founder of Larger Us, which explores how we can use psychology to reduce political tribalism and polarisation, a senior fellow at New York University, and author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017). He is a former Campaign Director of the 50 million member global citizen’s movement Avaaz, special adviser to two UK Cabinet Ministers, climate expert in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and was Research Director for the Business Commission on Sustainable Development. Alex lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire.

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