BACK DRUG TRADE, END VIOLENCE

Does anyone recall the "War on Drugs" declared by President Nixon in
1971?

The War on Drugs, like the War on Iraq, has been costly but futile
(not to mention Afghanistan). The former has faded from our corporate
memory, and the latter is well on its way to the same fate.

We know the demand begins in our heartland, but the addiction is fed
at our borders to the south, largely Mexico, which has cultivated
opium poppy since before the 1900s and has been an important transit
route for South American cocaine for decades.

Mexico is also a major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium
poppy in 2007 rose to 6,900 hectares, yielding a potential production
of 18 metric tons of pure heroin, or 50 metric tons of "black tar''
heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United
States. Marijuana cultivation increased to 8,900 hectares in 2007.

But surely there was a better solution than the fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Why not subsidize the farmers who grow the cannabis, poppies and coca
plants? 1. Give them the seed; 2. Have Peace Corps workers help to
plant the seeds and with the harvest; 3. Buy the crop; 4. Thresh it,
bag it, take it to market, or distribute to needy people in the area;
and 5. Prepare the fields for the next crop.

Could it work? Absolutely! If so, would it be better than the
alternative? No question about it! Money is an answer to almost
everything.

Fighting Drugs Costly

It is reported that the struggle with illicit drugs cost the American
taxpayer $181 billion in 2004 alone. It has increased significantly
over the past five years while America is struggling to save millions
of lives and billions of dollars in our futile effort to cut off the
demand of these products from "hell."

However, as long as there is a demand for drugs, someone is going to
provide the supply. The product provides a lucrative crop for
struggling farmers around the world. One commentator said: "The
biggest lesson is for the U.S., and that is to stop using (drugs).
Until that happens, nothing the U.S. does can prevent these people
from doing this. There is absolutely no way to stop it."

Most Americans agree! Scores of nations both have the problem or are
the causation. What about the United Nations doing something besides
attracting so-called diplomats to live high on the hog in New York
City?

Perhaps a different approach might have a chance to work. Eighty years
ago, more or less, our nation was in another kind of struggle fueled
by overproduction of farm crops. Although I am not certain that all
the "New Deal" programs stopped the long fall to the bottom that
America experienced in the Great Depression, some of them stuck
around, and remain an important factor in the American narrative in
the decades since.

If one puts that old solution with the recent growth of the illicit
drug industry, one might find the struggle is still expensive, but
different, and has potential.

Charlie Howell is a retired Nashville businessman, former legislator
and state conservation commissioner. He is also a community blogger
for The Tennessean.