FUND TREATMENT, NOT DRUG WAR

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

In his recent column, John Hall suggests that Plan Colombia is beginning to
look more like a Cold War-era counterinsurgency effort than a sincere
attempt at eradicating drugs. A cost-benefit analysis of U.S. anti-drug aid
to Colombia is long overdue. The $1.3 billion Plan Colombia could very well
spread both coca production and civil war throughout the region. Communist
guerrilla movements do not originate in a vacuum. U.S. tax dollars would be
better spent addressing the socio-economic causes of civil strife rather
than applying overwhelming military force to attack the symptoms.

We're not doing the Colombian people any favors by funding civil war. Nor
are Americans being protected from drugs. Destroy the Colombian coca crop
and production will boom in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Destroy every last
plant in South America and domestic methamphetamine production will
increase to meet the demand for cocaine-like drugs. The self-professed
champions of the free market in Congress are seemingly incapable of
applying basic economic principles to drug policy.

Instead of wasting billions waging a futile drug war abroad, we should be
funding cost-effective treatment here at home.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C.