BY JORGE CASTANEDA

In the central-western canyons of the Mexican border state of Chihuahua,
where waterfalls and abandoned mines blend in with secret landing strips and
vertical mountain plots, the few remaining peasants can choose between
cultivating corn on barren cliffs and receiving 300 pesos for each kilo of
marijuana grown on their land. Not much perhaps, and certainly a great deal
less than the 5,000 pesos per kilo the plane crews who pick up and deliver
the cargo obtain for their work, but nonetheless a better living than they
can eke out from a countryside breathtaking in its beauty but not really
meant for human inhabitation.

For the pilots, the payoff is much more substantial: A small single-engine
plane can carry half a ton of marijuana; the profits are huge, and the
risks, at least on the Mexican side of the border, virtually nil. There are
dozens of short landing strips in the area, and the planes fly so low that
they cannot be detected by radar, balloons or any other surveillance
mechanism. Once near the border, the cargo will be loaded onto trucks, cars,
buses -- nearly anything that moves -- and sent on its way into the United
States. The land transport is the tougher work, more dangerous and better paid.

This chapter of the war on drugs in Mexico was lost before it began. So
seems to be the case in Colombia, where changes have occurred, but not
exactly in the direction the local and foreign authorities would have
wished. Colombia was not traditionally a coca leaf-producing nation; the
crops were grown and harvested in Peru and Bolivia, and then shipped to
Colombia for further refining. But since Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori
declared his own version of a no-fly zone between the borders of his land
and began shooting down anything that flew or moved, the new "cartelitos"
decided to sow vast fields of coca leaf in Colombia. There are more than
270,000 acres of such fields in several areas of the country, which together
with its poppy crop for heroin and its traditional marijuana plantations is
now taking full advantage of its resources and climate.

The war on drugs in Colombia is being lost, too. And if we are to believe
the indictments brought against more than 50 American Airlines and Miami
International Airport employees recently for smuggling drugs into the U.S.
in food bins, ashtrays and even garbage bags, no one is winning the war
anywhere.

Especially not in Texas, where Gov. George W. Bush's travails have led Latin
Americans to wonder about the hypocrisy being demonstrated.

What is the purpose of investing hundreds of millions of dollars, plunging
countries into civil war, strengthening guerrilla groups and unleashing
enormous violence and corruption upon entire societies if American leaders
can simply brush off questions about drug use in their youth? The issue is
not whether these are private matters (they undoubtedly are) or whether
small-time peccadilloes 30 years ago should disqualify someone from
contending for the White House; they clearly should not. The issue is that
none of this is being perceived as anything worth worrying about by the
American people, according to the polls.

So then why should Latin Americans get worked up about drug abuse in the
United States -- either by prominent politicians in the White House or
teenagers in the ghettos? Either cocaine and marijuana are terribly
dangerous substances and breaking the law by consuming them is a major
offense that should be severely punished or these are minor, personal
matters that do not really count in the scale of life, in which case the
rationale for a bloody, costly and futile war against them is simply
foolish. Talk of drugs in the American presidential campaign, together with
the growing sense of despair sweeping through many Latin American countries,
could launch a wide-ranging, free-wheeling debate between North and Latin
Americans about this absurd war no one really wants to wage. It could begin
with a clear-headed evaluation of what has been achieved, what has worked
and what has failed. It could then encompass ways in which market and price
mechanisms can be brought to bear on the drug business to make it less
lucrative.

Legalizing certain substances may be the only way to bring prices way down,
and doing so may be the only remedy to some of the worst aspects of the drug
plague: violence, corruption and the collapse of the rule of law. While this
may appear as anathema to many in the United States, its costs and benefits
must be assessed in the light of the pernicious, hypocritical and
dysfunctional status quo. That comparison will hardly favor business as usual.

Jorge Castaneda is a political scientist and writer in Mexico City. He wrote
this column for the Los Angeles Times.