COLOMBIA PLANS

William Raspberry's Sept. 1 op-ed piece, "Colombia's Drug Problem: Us,"
brings to mind the frustrating debate about whether we should spend the
nation's drug-control budget on combating drug producers and traffickers or
reducing the number of drug users. But a strategy that addresses only the
second part of the equation, as Mr. Raspberry recommends, is doomed to failure.

I also take exception to his claim that mandatory drug sentences have
"filled our prisons to overflowing with nonviolent offenders." Drug users
commit crimes--often violent crimes. Last year, 64 percent of adult male
federal prisoners tested positive for drugs at the time of arrest. In
Washington, 69 percent tested positive, and of those arrested for violent
crimes, more than half tested positive. Although we cannot arrest our way
out of the nation's drug problem, neither can we just educate our way out.
We need a balanced strategy of prevention, education, law enforcement,
supply reduction and international cooperation.

Donnie R. Marshall, Administrator, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
Washington