Setting a record number of drug records

About a week ago, Steven Taylor noted another “record” drug seizure in Mexico, and that everything is somehow a new record. I thought of that today as I read about the White House drug czar claiming success, noting a “record eradication campaign.” Commenting on his post, I wrote that it woud be really interesting to do an analysis of the word “record” with regard to drug policy in Latin America.

The constant talk about records bugs me. It’s so obviously bogus. If we are setting records all the time, then why has so little been accomplished? In addition, my hypothesis (to be tested someday when I have time to gather data) is that the word “record” intensifies just before an administration requests more funding for drug initiatives. Do you want to fight drug trafficking? Well, we’ve been setting records so how can you possibly be against [insert drug program here]?

Lo and behold, all this talk of records is accompanied by the following Washington Post editorial, which tells us we need to fund Plan Mexico because only leftists fail to see how successful the Colombia drug war has been.

The package nevertheless will probably become a target for leftists in Mexico and the United States who reflexively oppose any military or security collaboration between the two countries. The Mexican press is calling the aid program "Plan Mexico," after Plan Colombia, the U.S. aid program that has been a continual target for the left despite its clear success in helping the Colombian government beat back drug traffickers, leftist guerrillas and right-wing insurgents.