The 1% Solution

With statistics like these, there should be no ticker tape parades for the U.K.'s drug warriors:

A success rate of 1%. In what area of public life would we accept that? Last year, Professor Neil McKeganey of the University of Glasgow, one of the most respected academics in Britain, established that the authorities seize just 1% of the heroin that enters Scotland in any one year. He sees no reason to think this would be any different for the nation as a whole.

Drug agencies like to brag about how they've intercepted record amounts of drugs, but if you look behind the statistic you typically find that the success rate hasn't changed - it's just that more drugs are finding they way into the country.