Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Cocaine - Better and Cheaper

The ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) recently admitted that despite the billions of dollars spent on Plan Columbia, it didn't quite work out the way they had planned....Mission Not Accomplished seems to be the theme for the War on Drugs.

Despite the billions being spent on drug interdiction and eradication as part of
"Plan Colombia," retail cocaine prices fell 11 percent between February 2005 and
October 2006, drug czar John Walters acknowledged in a letter to a leading
Republican lawmaker.

Average cocaine purity also increased, Walters said.
The Associated Press reported April 27 that Walters told Sen.
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that cocaine prices have fallen to $135 per gram,
about the same price as in the early 1990s and far short of the $600 per gram
the drug cost in 1981. ONDCP has repeatedly asserted that Plan Colombia has
made cocaine more expensive and less potent for U.S. consumers.
Grassley, the co-chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, said the data showed that while the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) "has gotten quite good at spinning the numbers ... cooking the books doesn't help our
efforts to curb cocaine and heroin production and consumption.
Join Together Article.

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