BACKFIRE POTENTIAL

In response to the remarkably balanced June 3 article by Pedro Ruz
Gutierrez:

The U.S.-backed Plan Colombia could very well spread both coca production
and civil war throughout South America. Communist guerilla movements do not
originate in a vacuum.

U.S. tax dollars would be better spent addressing the socioeconomic 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.

Rather than waste resources attempting to overcome immutable laws of supply
and demand, policymakers should look to the lessons learned from America's
disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition. Drug laws fuel organized
crime and violence, which is then used to justify increased drug war
spending. It's time to end this madness.

Matthew Briggs,
Research Associate,
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation,
NEW YORK, N.Y.