Mr. Fukuyama makes it clear, perhaps unintentionally, that our foreign
policy toward Columbia is a case of the tail waging the dog. Our
precious, albeit failed, War on Drugs is more important to us than the
future of Columbia. Replacing prohibition of cocaine and heroin with a
sensible, regulated market, thereby eradicating the obscene profits
created by prohibition, would restore some semblance of political
balance between the competing interests in Columbia. Ending
prohibition would require a major infusion of developmental funds to
prevent economic collapse.

Nevertheless better that, and cheaper, too, than guns, helicopters and
unending warfare.

Gerald M. Sutliff
Emeryville, Calif.

Note: The WSJ, historically prohibitionist, here prints letters from two
oft-published letter writers.

Together, Sharpe and Sutliff have 36 letters in the 1999-2000 MAP
archive at http://www.mapinc.org/lte/.