Cocaine is cheaper, purer, and easier to get than it was decades ago — a sign the border is not stopping drugs, and bad news for anyone counting on the crackdown to work.

• A gram of cocaine cost twice as much in the 1980s and was mostly filler; today it is cheaper and close to pure.
• Buying it once meant driving to a dangerous part of town; now it can be delivered to a house in minutes.
• Falling prices and rising quality mean supply is plentiful, which points to drugs crossing the border freely.
• Cracking down on traffickers has been tied to sharp drops in crime, so the enforcement gap cuts both ways.
• Early strikes on drug boats and fentanyl shipments made an impression, but the pressure has since eased off.

Outlook: Without renewed enforcement, cheap and pure supply is likely to keep flowing, and the border will stay a political flashpoint.