Whack-a-mole Drug War: Outsourcing the Drug War

 A commentary on the Report on Counternarcotics Contracts

Border Lines: Outsourcing the Drug War: "The problem isn’t oversight or outsourcing. The central problem in U.S. counternarcotics funding and programming is the federal government’s continuing commitment to drug prohibition.

In her capacity as chairman of the Contracting Oversight Subcommittee of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) deserves much credit for her dogged efforts to increase the oversight of the federal outsourcing to private contractors. Recently McCaskill has spearheaded the ad hoc subcommittee’s review of the proliferation of counternarcotics contracting by the State Department and the Defense Department. ...

The fundamental problem, however with counternarcotics operation isn’t waste or the lack of transparency, oversight, and accountability.

Promised new accounting and oversight reforms by DOD and State don’t address the fact that U.S. counternarcotics funding hasn’t reduced U.S. drug consumption. Nor has it reduced global drug production. If McCaskill is concerned that taxpayer money is being wasted, then she should add her voice to the rising chorus of activists and public officials saying it’s time to end drug prohibition and the related drug wars in Latin America."