ATTACK DRUG ABUSE SOCIALLY, NOT MILITARILY

Letter # 1:

Regarding the Dec. 10 article on U.S. funding of Colombia's drug war:
Plan Colombia could very well spread both civil war and coca
production throughout the region. 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
military force to attack the symptoms. Forcing Colombia's guerrillas
to the bargaining table at gunpoint will not remedy Colombia's
societal inequities.

We're not doing the Colombian people any favors by funding civil war.
Nor are we protecting Americans from 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, policymakers should
look to the lessons learned from America's disastrous experiment with
alcohol prohibition. The drug war finances organized crime while
failing miserably at preventing use.

With organized crime comes corruption, and the United States is not
immune. 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 crime and
corruption, which is 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 Washington, D.C. Sharpe is program officer for the
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation.

Letter # 2:

Why is the United States again preparing to spill blood and waste
another $1.3 billion in the name of our war on drugs? When Operation
Colombia begins in January, Colombian women and children will die in
vain. He cites American "vital interests" as an excuse for the futile
exercise. These interests can only be keeping cocaine off American
streets. For 20 years we have fought cocaine cartels with everything
we've got, yet the drug remains more readily available and cheaper to
the American consumer than ever. Hasn't two decades of ineffective
interdiction taught us anything? American-financed machine-gun fights
in Colombia and neighboring countries barely scratch the surface of
what is wrong with our drug policy. The war on drugs has spilled over
into a war on the civil liberties and human rights of millions of
Americans and people around the world. We have a four-star general
employed to solve a health and social problem, not a military one.
The fighting - and cocaine production - will admittedly spill over
into Peru, Brazil and other countries. Our policy only adds fuel to
the fire.

When McCaffrey steps down in January, it will be time for the new
administration to pause and rethink our drug prevention policies. I'm
sure we can find better uses for more than $20 billion annually.

JASON PALMER
Grafton