TIME TO END WAR ON DRUGS

For those who believe calling the United States' drug policies a "drug war"
is a misnomer, recent remarks by a Marine general should set them straight
and send a chill down every freedom-loving American.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command,
testified March 27 before the Senate Armed Services Committee concerning
security in Latin America and the Caribbean. Each spring, the military's
top regional commanders present security reviews to Capitol Hill covering
their command's readiness posture, challenges and priorities. In his
report, Pace discussed the command's strategic assessment, theater
architecture and military-to-military engagement. However, the heart of his
testimony centered on the illicit drug trade.

"The illicit drug industry is a corrosive force that threatens the
stability and rule of law in the Andean region," Pace told the Senate
committee.

However, he said the region is incapable of sustaining counterdrug
operations because the nations' security forces are stretched too thin. He
recommends U.S. counterdrug assistance, specifically mentioning Colombia.

But this is a frightening concept. The last thing the United States needs
to do is get involved in a drug war in Latin America. U.S. soldiers are
trained to fight a war and defend the United States against attack. The
military establishment is ill-prepared to conduct police activities and
eradicating plants in Central America.

But of more immediate concern to us was Pace's assessment of drug
trafficking and its affect on the United States. He likened drugs to a
weapon of mass destruction and said they were one of Southern Commands top
transnational threats.

"The illicit drug industry is also a growing threat to the U.S. homeland,"
he said. "According to the Office of the National Drug Control Policy,
nearly 17,000 Americans lost their lives last year to drug overdose and
drug-related violence. In addition to this tragic lost of life, the direct
and indirect costs of illegal drug use to the U.S. taxpayer exceeded $110
billion."

Illegal drug trafficking is "one of the greatest threats to democracy,
regional stability and prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean," Pace
said. It ranks on a par with illegal migration, arms trafficking and crime
and corruption.

"Collectively, these transnational threats destabilize fragile democracies
by corrupting public institutions, promoting criminal activity, undermining
legitimate economies and disrupting social order," the general said in his
prepared statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He outlined a three-pronged attack to fight the drug war: reducing
America's demand for drugs, countering drug production at its source and
halting the drug flow in the "transit zone."

"If I had one dollar to spend," he said, "I would spend it on 'demand
reduction.' ... The reason I put it in that priority is that I believe our
efforts (to reduce demand) will provide the most success in the long term."

Once drugs are en route to the United States, he said, "it is very, very
difficult to chase those arrows once they've left the bow, to try to catch
them in flight, or to determine where they're going to land."

We would agree with the general that demand for illegal drugs in the United
States is too high. But treating drug users and sellers as enemies of the
state is the failed approach the United States has taken for too many
years. Even the most stubborn of nations will eventually give up on a war
they are losing.

It is time to decriminalize drug use. What a peaceable person decides to
put into his body is no business of government, even if it is harmful
drugs. And it is time the United States relegate its military forces to its
proper role of defending the American shore against invasion and stop using
it to fight a failed drug war.