U.S. ATTACKS SYMPTOMS ONLY

The U.S.-funded Plan Colombia could very well spread both civil war and
coca production throughout the region (Gazette, Feb. 9, "Coke and gunpowder").

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 is not doing the Colombian people any favours by funding
civil war.

Nor are Americans being protected against drugs. Cut off the flow of
cocaine and domestic methamphetamine production will boom to meet the
demand for cocaine-like drugs.

Rather than waste resources attempting to overcome immutable laws of supply
and demand, policy-makers should look to the lessons learned from the
disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition. The drug war finances
organized crime, while failing miserably at preventing use.

With organized crime comes corruption. The former commander of U.S.
anti-drug operations in Colombia was found guilty of laundering the profits
of his wife's heroin-smuggling operation. Entire countries have been
destabilized because of the corrupting influence of organized-crime groups
that profit from the illegal drug trade. Drug laws fuel corruption 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
Program Officer
The Lindesmith Centre - Drug Policy Foundation
Washington, D.C.