The proposed U.S. aid package to Colombia is a colossal waste of tax
dollars ("U.S. aid could fuel strife in Colombia," World, March 21).
Even if every last plant in Latin America were killed by the toxic
herbicides drug warriors spray, American youths would continue to get
high. As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply.

Cut off the flow of cocaine, and domestic methamphetamine production
will boom. Thanks to past successes at eradicating marijuana farms in
Latin America, the corresponding increase in domestic pot cultivation
has made marijuana America's No. 1 cash crop. Young people who cannot
buy pot have been known to use a host of deadly yet legal chemicals to
get high. I find it frustrating that the supposed champions of the
free market in Congress cannot understand how basic supply and demand
dynamics make the drug war futile.

At a time in our history when record numbers of Americans are using
psychoactive drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin, it amazes me that we
still have politicians claiming that a "drug-free" America is possible.

No amount of tax dollars spent eradicating plants in Latin America is
going to make the United States "drug free." Nor will funding civil
war in Colombia win the drug war. For the same reasons that alcohol
prohibition failed, the drug war has been doomed from the start.

Robert Sharpe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, George Washington
University, Washington