U.S. EFFORTS HAVE FAILED IN COLOMBIA

Peace in Colombia cannot be achieved through U.S. military aid and
drug crop fumigation. No matter how many hectares of Colombia,
Bolivia or Peru the United States and paid contractors destroy with
their aerial-dispersed poisons, not a single cocaine abuser in the
United States is any closer to true recovery.

Despite five years of pumping billions of dollars into the Colombian
military, the United States is failing on the counter-drug and
counter-insurgency fronts. It is time for a change in strategy. In
spite of U.S. programs to destroy agricultural land in southern Colombia:

- - The price, purity and availability of drugs in the United States
have not changed.

- - Aiding a military with paramilitary links and a poor human-rights
record like the Colombian armed forces is unacceptable.

- - Guns and fumigations will neither bring lasting stability to
Colombia nor stop the drugs flowing into the United States.

We need to stop destroying other countries' agricultural
infrastructure in the futile effort to control the multi-billion
dollar cocaine industry. More funding is needed for programs that
provide treatment on demand for any drug abuser who wants it right
here at home.

The United States should phase out aerial fumigations while providing
income-generating alternatives to illicit crop growth, support peace
in Colombia and supporting human rights of all, protecting the
victims of war and promoting social and economic development.

Noreen Ordronneau

Carrboro