FAILURES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS

To the Editor:

Your editorial includes powerful information on the futility of the
United States war on drugs but then makes the fatuous recommendation
that the next administration should provide funds to reform Mexico's
judicial system -- a process that is already under way.

Mexico faces a killing spree affecting thousands of innocent people
that is financed by American money going to the drug cartels that
fight for dominance of the lucrative United States market for illegal
drugs. The earnings from this trade amount to at least $15 billion a
year -- enough to buy arms to outgun the Mexican police and bribe
underpaid security officials.

We can't buy our way out of this culpability with a few hundred
million dollars of aid and irrelevant advice. The remedies lie on our
side of the border. We need to curb demand by treating our addicts and
by decriminalizing drug use, reduce the street price of drugs and thus
the gains of the drug lords.

Sidney Weintraub

Washington

The writer is an economist at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.