EDITORIAL: COLOMBIAN BAND-AID

The 36-year civil war in Colombia is so dangerous that President Clinton
had to deliver $1.3 billion in American aid to the port city of Cartagena
while surrounded by 5,000 armed Colombian soldiers and a smaller army of
Secret Service and other U.S. security experts.

That was not a good omen for those who expect the aid will reduce human
rights abuses and drugs.

Most of the $1.3 billion will be used for military aid to the Colombian
government. Supposedly, the money will be used to fight America's drug
problem by targeting Colombian narcotraffickers.

It's likely that U.S. tax dollars, U.S. military advisers and U.S. military
helicopters will be drawn into Colombia's ongoing civil war where human
rights atrocities on both sides occur regularly.

Since Congress passed the huge aid package for Colombia, the peace talks
ended and violence on both sides escalated.

Unfortunately, the guerrillas engaged in a struggle for control with
Colombia's government forces view the U.S. aid as a declaration of war.

The Colombian aid package included strings put on by Congress. The
Colombian government was supposed to meet seven human rights conditions.
Clinton waived the remaining human rights requirements after the Colombian
government met only one condition. Clinton's waiver of these conditions
angered many members of Congress, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch
and other other groups.

Colombia President Andres Pastrana made a remark that Americans involved in
the so-called drug war need to heed.

Pastrana said his country can do little if anything to curb international
drug trafficking until the United States and other user nations do more to
curb their gluttonous appetites for drugs.

Despite spending many billions of tax dollars trying to interdict drug
shipments entering the United States or destroy drug supplies at their
source, drugs continue to flow in the United States now as readily as they
did years ago.

The idea behind the supply-side philosophy was to make drugs so expensive
that American users could not afford to buy them. Instead, drug prices
remain static or have actually decreased.

In the meantime, at great expense and waste of human potential, the United
States has filled its prisons to overflowing with citizens who often are
more of a threat to themselves than to society.

Pastrana is right. The United States needs to put its primary emphasis on
the demand side of this country's drug problem, not the supply side.

More money needs to be spent on rehabilitation programs, both in prison and
in communities.

Lawmakers need to pass alternative sentencing laws to handle drug users.

Most importantly, children need to be encouraged to stay in school and
obtain a good education, which is a proven ticket to a productive life.