WE MUST BATTLE GUERRILLAS AND DRUGS

Re: Spend money on drug treatment, not Colombia aid,
letter, May 6.

The writers expressed dismay at the prospect of U.S. aid going to
Colombia to assist that country in its war against the Marxist FARC
guerrillas. They fail to realize that the FARC has dedicated itself to
destabilizing neighboring countries as well as its own. In addition,
the FARC is aligned with Colombia drug cartels, and those groups have
declared chemical warfare, using cocaine and heroin, against the
United States and other countries. We are discussing a national
security threat here, not the domestic issue of treatment.

The Colombian cartels and their willing handmaidens, the FARC, have
aggressively marketed one toxic product after another (e.g., cocaine,
crack cocaine and now heroin) to the United States and the world in
furtherance of that despicable goal. It seems to be quite in our
interest to aid the people of Colombia against the Marxist
insurgents/cum drug co-conspirators.

As for the writers' concern for treatment funding, there is merit to
that idea. Prevention, enforcement and treatment are equally
important. However, the place to look for that money is the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, which is the natural federal
agency to task with responsibility for drug treatment.

The entire federal criminal-justice apparatus, including the
enforcement agencies, corrections and the courts, receives about 1
percent of the federal budget. It dedicates over half of that funding
to combating drug trafficking, which constitutes national and
international crimes. HHS receives 18 percent of the federal budget
but dedicates only about 1 percent of that to drug issues, including
research and treatment. If HHS were to dedicate 5 to 10 percent of its
massive budget to treatment, it would go a long way toward providing
treatment on demand to drug addicts.

It is imperative that we reduce the demand for drugs through
prevention and treatment. It is equally necessary that law enforcement
fight to stem the flood of drugs with the limited resources allocated
to it, while we struggle to find ways to convince children not to
begin drug use and current adolescent and adult users to quit.

We must also fight international criminals who declare war against us.