The United States' Failure to Reduce Illegal Drug Supplies Demands a Dramatically Different Strategy in the Americas, Testifies WOLA at House Hearing http://www.wola.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewp&id=1139&Itemid=8

The United States' Failure to Reduce Illegal Drug Supplies Demands a Dramatically Different Strategy in the Americas, Testifies WOLA at House Hearing In the first decade of the 2000s, the U.S. government spent $9.9 billion on aid programs to help governments in Latin America and the Caribbean reduce the supply of illegal drugs coming to the United States. That is 48 percent of all U.S. aid, and 85 percent of all military and police aid, to the Western Hemisphere. 

"The result has been a wash," said Adam Isacson, Senior Associate for Regional Security Policy at the Washington Office on Latin America. "Measured in tons, the region is producing the same amount of cocaine as a decade ago. Measured in U.S. street prices, supply is satisfying demand as well as ever. Measured in drug-related violence in Latin America, the problem may now be even worse."