Crop substitution programs in Peru led to increased planting of coca, as farmers simply planted a small parcel of land with one of the accepted substitute crops and used the bulk of the funds to plant more coca. Cocaine cultivation uses only 700 of the 2.5 million square miles suitable for its growth in South America. There is simply no way the United States can police so vast an area. Second, the drug war has failed to stop illicit drugs at our borders. The grand total of drug seizures from that effort was eight.
Hard drugs are so easy to smuggle because they are so concentrated.
Our entire country's current annual import of cocaine would fit into a single C-5A cargo plane. As if the flood of imported drugs were not enough, domestic production of marijuana continues to increase. It is the largest cash crop in ten states, and the second largest cash crop in the nation, next only to corn. Methamphetamine, at two to three times the cost of crack, sustains a high for 24 hours as opposed to crack's 20 minutes. Even if we sealed our borders we could not stop the making of new drugs.