To the Editor:

The United States will make a serious error if, as President Clinton
proposes, it spends $1.3 billion to help fight the narcotics trade in
Colombia (news article, Jan. 12).

These dollars will filter down into the private bank accounts of political
hacks there. It would be wiser to spend the money on efforts to prevent
drugs from entering the United States.

When will it become clear that the demand for drugs in the United States is
the real reason for drug trafficking? Sending money to Colombia has
historically been a failure, and there is no prospect of success in the
future.

Norman E. Mann, San Diego, Jan. 12, 2000