Robert Novak was dead wrong in his Aug 13 column Chronicle, "Colombia
today is full of blood and heroin," writing that the reduction of the
opium-eradication capability in Colombia "keeps opium flowing into
America's cities and suburbs."

The only thing that keeps opium flowing into America's cities and
suburbs is our insane drug policy, which has created a black market,
which, in turn, has given the worst thugs and criminals in both parts
of our hemisphere a monopoly on the production and distribution of
opium as well as other dangerous drugs.

To add insult to injury, we subsidize these ruthless entrepreneurs by
allowing them to keep all of their obscene profits without paying a
penny in taxes.

As a result, they have been able to build one of the world's largest
industries, with yearly profits valued conservatively at over $200
billion and capabilities of corrupting police and other government
officials all over the world as a (relatively minor) cost of doing
business.

We could completely obliterate Columbia's opium-producing capability
without putting a dent in the amount of opium flowing into America's
cities and suburbs. The flow would just come from somewhere else.

Novak thinks the alliance between the drug cartels and the guerillas
in Colombia means that =93the deadly flow of heroin to America cannot
be stemmed at the peace table.=94 But, in fact, the deadly flow could
be stemmed without the need for a peace table, by the adoption of a
rational drug policy, some elements of which could be effected by the
stroke of a pen.

I was privileged to hear Mike Gray, author of a new book, Drug Crazy,
when he spoke last month at a Rotary Club of Houston luncheon. He told
the Rotarians that we will get a rational drug policy only after we
get tired of the gunplay, the spread of organized crime, the
mushrooming prison population, the rampant corruption, and the steady
erosion of the Constitution which our present drug policy has created.

G. Alan Robison, Executive Director, Drug Policy Forum of Texas,
Houston