DRUGS - TACKLE DEMAND SIDE

The accidental shooting down of a U.S. missionary plane in Peru last
week and the deaths of two Americans on board has helped to expose
some of the perils and priorities of this country's war on illicit
drugs. It is a war that is being fought with the wrong weapons and on
the wrong battlefield.

The White House, perhaps squeamish about picking a fight with a
reluctant ally in the drug war, gently suggested that Peru's military
failed to follow established rules of engagement when one of its jets
fired on the American plane in the mistaken belief it was carrying
drugs. The Peruvians have insisted they went by the book. In any case,
a devoted American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter are dead,
and the pilot of the plane is in the hospital with leg wounds.

Although the details of the shooting are wrapped in disagreement,
confusion and ignorance, it is clear that the United States and Peru
have been making aggressive efforts to interrupt the shipment of
narcotics. In the last six years, Peruvian pilots have shot down 30
planes suspected of ferrying drugs, and many more have been forced to
land. It's possible that, if the Peruvian military hadn't been so
aggressive about shooting suspected drug planes out of the sky, those
two Americans might be alive.

This fiscal year, the federal government will spend $18.1 billion to
control illegal drugs, according to a spokesman for the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Of that sum, a little more than half - $9.4 billion - will be used by
the U.S. criminal justice system to arrest, prosecute and imprison
drug offenders. Another $3.2 billion will be spent on drug treatment;
$2.5 billion on education and other prevention programs; $1.9 billion
on drug interdiction efforts by the armed forces and others; and $610
million on such international efforts as crop eradication and the
maintenance of Drug Enforcement Administration offices overseas.

For next year, the spokesman said, various government agencies will
seek $19.2 billion for drug control, and the White House hopes to
virtually double - to $1.2 billion - the amount spent on international
drug-fighting programs. The bulk of the increase would be spent in
Colombia, Bolivia - and Peru.

Interdiction efforts have a role to play in the war on drugs, if for
no other reason than to demonstrate our commitment to stamping out the
international drug trade. But facts have to be faced. Supply-side
efforts, including interdiction flights and crop eradication, aren't
working; torrents of drugs still flow onto American streets and into
American bloodstreams.

Rather than spend huge sums in a heroic but largely futile effort to
cut off the supply of drugs, this country should make a greater
commitment to drug treatment and prevention programs.

It's simple, but it bears repeating: If the demand for drugs stopped,
then drug dealers in Peru, Pittsburgh, Peoria and elsewhere would soon
go out of business, and the Peruvian Air Force would have other things
to do besides shoot down suspicious airplanes and kill their unlucky
passengers.