TREATMENT, EDUCATION KEY DRUG WAR WEAPONS

Former Sen. Paul Simon's column [March 30] on the need to provide
funds for education and treatment to better fight drug abuse was on
target. I was an administrator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration from 1976 to 1981, and I have seen the loss of life of
DEA special agents in Colombia, Mexico, Thailand and the United
States--and the destruction of families and communities. This makes it
a personal as well as a professional issue.

Colombia is the source of 80 percent of the cocaine imported into the
United States and more than 50 percent of the marijuana and heroin.
Colombia needs all the help it can get to combat drug trafficking, but
as Simon points out, U.S. resources need to be deployed more evenly,
with greater emphasis on education and treatment.

Reduction of demand will slow consumption of illegal drugs more
effectively than interdiction. And effective treatment for drug abuse
will reduce crime as well as consumption. When there is a three-month
waiting list for treatment in most urban and rural areas, and with
less than 1 percent of the prison population who need help actually in
treatment programs, putting $1 billion or more in Colombia is a
misdirection of resources.

As Simon says, should we help Colombia to fight drug trafficking?
Should we be tough on those selling drugs? Should we devote more
resources to drug education and treatment? Yes, on all accounts.

U.S. drug policy has not been effectively directed, balanced or
funded. Foreign countries still look at U.S. drug users as the cause,
but increasingly, addiction, heroin and cocaine abuse are serious
problems in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. The proposed billion
dollar-plus commitment in Colombia is basically militarily directed,
downplays police law enforcement and ignores helping community
resources, parent groups and treatment centers at local, national and
regional levels, which would provide in-country political support and
would cost a fraction of the big dollars in military aid.

It is in our interest to help Colombia and Latin America. What worries
me is that the administration, and maybe Congress, will think that
this one-time $1.3 billion program for Colombia will solve our
domestic drug problem. It will not.

Peter B. Bensinger, president, Bensinger, DuPont & Associates