LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO DRUG PROBLEM MEANS CUTTING DEMAND, NOT SUPPLY

Buying Drugs Is Like Supplying Guns to Criminals in Deadly Drug War,
Claims Refugee From Colombia

It seemed strange so many people finished their meals together with
Colombia's former-president, Cesar Gaviria.

We sat next to him at a dinner in the Latin American nation when he
invited us outside to continue our conversation. We pushed aside our
plates and slowly rose.

So did another third of the room.

We walked out discussing Gaviria's role in the War on Drugs. He had
fought the powerful Medellin Cartel led by the infamous Pablo
Escobar. During his presidential campaign, candidates had a better
chance of being assassinated than elected. Gaviria felt that sting
personally. His sister was murdered in 2006.

That's when it became clear the people walking with us weren't there
by coincidence. They were a security escort. Gaviria explained the
drug trade might be Latin America's issue, but it's North America's problem.

From cocaine in Colombia to opium in Afghanistan to marijuana in
West Africa, the drug trade is a dangerous world. Since mid-January,
we have felt this violence in British Columbia's 20 gang-related
murders. These incidents are rightly appalling, but only a taste of
what Latin America and other wartorn nations have experienced for decades.

Gaviria now advises Mexico on dealing with its 10,000 drug-related
murders since 2006. That's how he has come to the conclusion that the
only stability in this violent business comes from North American demand.

Our strategy in the War on Drugs has traditionally been to cut off
supply. Aircraft locate coca farms and drop a powerful herbicide on
the plants. This successfully kills the coca crop and everything
else, including legal crops such as bananas, coffee and other
livelihood-providers for poor farmers.

Despite such treatment of more than 130,000 hectares in 2005 alone,
the CIA says growers began to aggressively replant new terrain,
virtually cancelling out earlier efforts.

It's the steady North American demand that makes this replanting so
lucrative. The annual profit for a hectare of coffee, one of
Colombia's main exports, is estimated at about $500, while coca will
bring in $5,000.

For one young woman, that difference makes what to plant a no-brainer.

"The farmers are thinking, 'My kids are starving,'" says Carolina
Arcila, a 26-year-old Colombian refugee. "If someone tells you to
plant a legal crop and get paid nothing, why would you?"

Unlike students in Canada or the United States, Arcila explained,
while growing up in Colombia she never saw cocaine in her high
school. She did, however, see its effects.

As a teenager, she met returned child soldiers who told her about the
brainwashing tactics of the guerrilla armies. She also spoke with
individuals who had been kidnapped. One man was tied to a tree for
seven months and guarded by a group of soldiers her own age.

Two weeks before her family fled to Canada as refugees, three of
Arcila's school-aged friends were kidnapped.

All atrocities in the name of the drug trade. But it wasn't until
Arcila got to Canada that she actually saw the narcotic.

That's when the bubbly young woman with a seemingly permanent smile got mad.

"Do you understand that when you buy cocaine here, you're giving
money to war?" she asked. "It's the same as just handing them a gun."

But guns are exactly what we used in the past -- and it's what we're
currently working with. In April, President Barack Obama requested
$80 million for Black Hawk helicopters to help Mexico fight its
growing drug cartels.

As Gaviria stepped into his bullet-proof SUV, his exasperation came
out. The man is understandably tired.

Tired of watching his people die. Tired of the negative portrayals of
his country. Tired of no one taking responsibility for our demand.

That's where the long-term solution is. He's just tired of waiting.

Craig and Marc Kielburger co-founded Free the Children. The goal of
the organization is to free children from poverty and exploitation
through education.