>> 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:

> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/11/06/n...

>> 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.

> It was lost over 20 years ago.

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

> Repeating something that's already failed expecting a different outcome
> shows some kind of psychosis.