> A while ago, some Italian researchers decided to work out how much
> cocaine is _actually_ being taken, by a rather devious route. They
> worked out what happens to cocaine in a person's body, which is it gets
> turned into something else and excreted in urine.

> The metabolite only comes from cocaine, and the only natural source of
> it is cocaine taken by people. So, work out how much metabolite is in
> the sewage and you know how much cocaine is being taken per day by
> people.

> Turns out the figure is about ten times higher than any previous
> research (all based on asking people and guesstimating an answer) had
> said. Ordinarily, I'd be highly suspicious of such an outlying figure,
> but here, what with this being the only quantitative study made and all
> the rest being subject to huge reporting bias, I'm inclined to believe
> it.

> This result (and the "Me Too!" one done in London, with similar results)
> tells us a few things:

> Firstly, the level and amount of cocaine use is much, much higher than
> the Government thought.

> Secondly, well over 95% of cocaine users are undetected by law
> enforcement, medical science or anything.

> Thirdly, the overwhelming majority of people who use cocaine suffer no
> detectable ill effects from it (otherwise we'd know about it).

> Finally, data from the police shows that the street price of cocaine is
> going down. The number of users isn't likely to be decreasing, so what
> is happening is that the amount of cocaine smuggled in is increasing.

> We're losing this war on drugs.

> Let's try something different, please. Fighting a losing war that we
> know we cannot win is incredibly stupid.