IN COLOMBIA, A ROSTER OF VICTIMS

To the Editor:

Re "To Colombians, Drug War Is Toxic Enemy" (front page, May 1):

The Clinton administration is proposing a stepped-up program to fumigate
Colombian drug crops as part of a $1.6 billion emergency aid package.

But even now critics say the spraying is hurting people's health and their
food crops. This means that a quarter of a century later we are again
financing the spraying of herbicides on people and their land in the name of
war.

Melanie Lenart
Tucson, May 2, 2000

To the Editor:

Americans have watched as the drug war eroded civil liberties, expanded
prison populations and allowed thousands to become infected with H.I.V. Now
it seems we can add poisoned crops and sick Colombian children to the drug
war's "collateral damage" (front page, May 1).

Pesticide spraying in Colombia, a grave threat to human and environmental
health, will not advance peace or solve America's drug problems. It further
impoverishes and destabilizes communities and drives illicit crops to other
areas.

Poverty and a virtually inexhaustible supply of land guarantee production of
cocaine as long as people around the world desire it. The United States
should dedicate its resources to drug treatment at home and to building an
infrastructure of peace in Colombia through economic development and
democratic institutions.

Matthew Briggs
New York

The writer is a research associate at the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy
group.