Rethink Coast Guard Priorities
A shift from drug interdiction to fisheries protection could be a better use of funds, protect U.S. natural
resources, and contribute to mission success.
By Lieutenant Noah Miller, U.S. Coast Guard
August 2019
Drug interdiction is one of the Coast Guard’s most visible missions. It involves thousands of days deployed every year by Coast Guard cutters and aircraft, and typically accounts for at least 20 percent of the service’s operational budget.1 Every few months when a cutter pulls into port for a bulk contraband offload, there is a headline-grabbing photo op, with service members proudly standing behind mountains of cocaine.
In the past few years, offloads have been getting larger and larger, often setting records for kilograms interdicted. While this may seem to indicate success, several metrics, including the Coast Guard’s own reporting, show the service has little effect on the flow of cocaine into the United States. What is the impact from the billions of dollars spent on interdicti
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/august/rethink-coast-guard-priorities
