Tuesday, February 17

Street value of a rock of crack cocaine the size of the sun.

Harper's has started letting you search through the last 25 years of the Index online for free. This is something that I could waste days with. Here's what came up for "cocaine":

4/86Amount Bolivia earned on its exports in 1985: $1,114,000,000


11/89Chances that a first-time cigarette smoker will become addicted: 9 in 10


    Chances that a first-time user of cocaine will become addicted: 1 in 6


6/89Percentage of all paper money in the United States that contains traces of cocaine: 97


1/90Lines of coke done in Bright Lights, Big City: 48


2/90Ratio of U.S. emergency aid received by the Colombian military to aid received by the Colombian police last fall: 6:1


Ratio of the cocaine seized by the Colombian military to cocaine seized by the Colombian police in 1988: 1:4
9/90Percentage of Peru’s coca crop destroyed by U.S.-assisted forces last year: 1
Percentage destroyed by insects: 20
1/95Mandatory minimum jail sentence, in years, for possession of five grams of crack: 5
Chances that an American sentenced for crack-related offenses is white: 1 in 25
 Mandatory minimum sentence for possession of five grams of cocaine: 0
Chances that an American sentenced for cocaine possession is white: 1 in 3

2/97Percentage return on investment that a person who smuggles cocaine into Miami can expect: 300


    Percentage return on investment that a person who smuggles Freon into Miami can expect: 1,200


2/97Percentage of the heroin and cocaine consumed each year that is consumed by people on bail, probation, or parole: 60


5/98Percentage of violent offenders in state prisons whose crime was committed under the influence of alcohol alone: 21


    Percentage whose crime was committed under the influence of crack or cocaine alone: 3


10/00Factor by which cocaine production in Colombia has increased since 1995: 2


    Factor by which annual U.S. military aid to Colombia has increased since then: 31


11/00Percentage change since 1979 in the number of cocaine users in the United States: -62


2/00Percentage change in Colombia’s estimated cocaine production since 1990: +154


8/01Estimated percentage of Colombia’s cocaine exports controlled by right-wing paramilitary leaders: 40


6/04Street value of a rock of crack cocaine the size of the sun: $5.6 x 1034

8/04Number of years a judge ordered a man convicted of cocaine possession last spring to keep a coffin in his home: 6.5


10/05Number of toilet seats at the EU Parliament building in Brussels that a TV station had tested for cocaine: 46


    Number that tested positive: 41

3/08Estimated amount that Ike Turner spent on cocaine during his lifetime, according to Turner: $11,000,000