WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is unable to show that the billions of dollars spent in the war on drugs have significantly stemmed the flow of illegal narcotics into the U.S., according to two government reports and outside experts.
The reports specifically criticize the growing use of U.S. contractors, which were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, to help eradicate fields of coca, operate surveillance equipment and otherwise battle the widening drug trade in Latin America in the past five years.
“We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who chairs the Senate subcommittee that wrote one of the reports, which was released Wednesday.
Administration officials strongly deny that U.S. efforts have failed to reduce drug production or smuggling.
Tribune Co. Washington Bureau
