Cocaine has had a long and prominent position in the history of American substance abuse. Created in 1989, the Office of National Drug Control Policy maintains responsibility for coordinating and monitoring the nation's counter-narcotics policy. But responsibility for coordination and monitoring is not the same thing as control. Snow Job? examines source country control policies — policies intended to control the production and export of cocaine from Latin America — and their limitations. The author disagrees with analysts who believe that source country control policies can lead to permanent victory, and suggests a better strategy would be one that recognizes the severe limits facing interdiction, eradication, and other source country policies, and instead focuses on directing source country resources where they will be most useful.

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