Canadian Navy busy busy helping DEA intercept cocaine five thousand miles from our shores

And for this the Canadian taxpayer should build our Navy a new fleet?

Don't get me wrong. I'd rather nobody touched the stuff. But that's just me. I have it on reasonably decent authority that cocaine remains the grease that lubes the wheel-bearings of the beautiful people from Wall Street to Sunset Boulevard. That such a thing is even conceivable tells you all you need to know about the efficacy of the forty-years-and-counting "War on Drugs."

As in, it's been a complete sham.

Not that this fact should deter the Royal Canadian Navy from wasting it's time and our tax dollars rooting out the scourge of cocaine use.

After all, cocaine doesn't just limit itself to the beautiful people. Check out this little tidbit from the Wikipedia page for HMCS Saskatoon, the very vessel being celebrated today for her outstanding efforts in the War on Drugs;

In 2007, a court martial revealed that a third of the crew of the ship used illicit drugs, namely cocaine. This led to a wider investigation in the Canadian Forces into drug use.

Here's why Canada needs a navy

You'd think that with one of the longest coastlines of any nation, Canadian Forces ships would have more than enough to do in Canadian waters.

Apparently not. The Canadian Navy has been busy ferrying a US Law Enforcement Team around the eastern Pacific, taking the good fight to the bad guys.

Our partners in Operation Martillo include lots of shady characters in Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala who may or may not have links to death squads and drug trafficking. Lt. General Stu Beare is very pleased that our Navy can work closely with allies like that to keep Canadians safe.

Alas, this is a good-news bad-news story. The good news is that the Canadian Forces are turning the tide in the war on drugs.

The bad news is that drugs are as available as ever on our streets.

Something doesn't add up.