DRUG WAR

Regarding the March 14 editorial advocating caution on Colombia: Plan
Colombia could very well spread both coca production and civil war throughout
South America.

Communist guerrilla movements do not originate in a vacuum. U.S. tax
dollars would be better spent addressing the underlying causes of
civil strife rather than applying overwhelming military force to
attack the symptoms.

Forcing Colombia's FARC guerrillas to the bargaining table at gunpoint
will not remedy Colombia's societal inequities. The United States
isn't 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 the U.S. 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 crime and violence, which are then used to justify increased
drug war spending.

It's time to end this madness and start treating all substance abuse,
legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

ROBERT SHARPE, M.P.A., Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation

4455 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite B-500, Washington, D.C.