Last month the Drug Enforcement Administration, tasked with setting quotas for opioid production in the U.S, announced a proposal to reduce production levels another 10 percent, having already reduced production by 25 percent in 2017 and an additional 20 percent in 2018. This would bring down production levels to 53 percent of 2016 levels. Yesterday the DEA released a proposal to develop “use-specific” quotas.

This is from the excellent Jeffrey A. Singer, “DEA Is About to Demonstrate ‘How Little They Know About What They Imagine They Can Design,” Cato at Liberty, October 24, 2019.

I don’t know who chose the title of Jeffrey’s post, but I do think that whoever chose it is a little hard on the DEA. To be fair, I think the DEA knows very well how to design a drug cartel.

And note that, unlike most people use the term “drug cartel,” I’m using it correctly.