DRUG INTERDICTION

Regarding the article on Sen. Paul Wellstone's (D-Minn.) opposition to Plan
Colombia, the $1.3- billion drug eradication plan ["Wellstone Continues
Drug Fight," Dec. 2]: Human rights violations are one of many valid reasons
to oppose American involvement in Colombia. Plan Colombia, like the drug
war itself, has been doomed from the start. Even if every last coca plant
in Colombia were somehow destroyed, Americans would continue to get high.
Cut off the flow of cocaine, and domestic methamphetamine production will
boom to meet the demand for cocaine-like drugs. Thanks to past successes at
eradicating marijuana in Latin America, the corresponding increase in
domestic cultivation has made pot America's No. 1 cash crop. As long as
there is a demand, there will be a supply.

Drug interdiction efforts only increase the profitability of drug
trafficking and are tantamount to price supports for organized crime. With
organized crime comes corruption, and America is not immune. The ongoing
scandal at the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart station is but one
example.

This insidious corruption stretches from coast to coast and reaches the
highest levels. Entire countries have been destabilized due to the
corrupting influence of organized-crime groups that profit from the illegal
drug trade.

Drug laws fuel organized crime and corruption, which is then used to
justify increased drug war spending. It's time to end this madness and
start treating all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, like the public
health problem that it is.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, DC

Editor's Note: The writer is a program officer for the Lindesmith Center, a
not-for-profit drug-policy foundation.