THIS IS NOT A FIX

As whistle-stop visits go, it must have been one of the most expensive on
record.

Bill Clinton, the U.S. President, spent Wednesday in Colombia and left
behind US$1.3-billion in military aid. The money, which makes Colombia the
largest recipient of U.S. aid outside of the Middle East, is to be used to
battle drug suppliers.

But if the United States is serious about putting an end to the drug trade,
that money would be better spent at home curtailing the demand for illegal
drugs than abroad fighting a losing battle against their supply.

A decade ago, the prevailing logic was that the various Colombian cocaine
cartels, such as the Medellin and Cali, were the key to the drug trade --
crush them and the supply would wither.

But it did not work that way. While the cartels were put out of business in
the mid-1990s, the availability of cocaine has increased, not decreased, on
U.S. streets.

In the place of the cartels, leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia have
become the new patrons of the drug industry.

These groups control half the Colombian countryside and nearly all the drug
supply.

Clearly the biggest problem facing military efforts to curtail the
international drug supply is that victories are temporary.

The massive potential profits mean that even if the helicopters and other
equipment and training the $1.3-billion is supposed to buy are successful in
curtailing the activities of drug suppliers in Colombia, new sources will
simply pop up in neighbouring countries such as Brazil, Venezuela or Peru.
The problem will not have changed, only the locale.

Any serious efforts to win the war on drugs must focus on demand instead of
supply.

Certainly the resources poured into U.S. drug enforcement and incarceration
reflect such an approach, but much greater emphasis needs to be placed on
drug treatment.

The most sensible strategy, as advocated by public policy commentator James
Q. Wilson of Pepperdine University, is to use the threat of incarceration to
encourage drug users to enroll, voluntarily, in programs aimed at kicking
their habit.

Only if Americans choose to stop buying drugs on their own can the drug war
ever be won. And this is a campaign that is more suited to the District of
Columbia than the Republic of Colombia.