THE WAR ON DRUGS

There's No Good News

Ms. O'Grady blames U.S. drug policy for the difficulties in Bolivia,
and makes the all too familiar comparison between the war on drugs
and Prohibition in the 1930s. She criticizes international meddling
by the U.S. and simply casts out the notion that "there are so many
better ways to fight drug use on U.S. soil" without describing what
those methods are. If there are truly better ways to fight the war on
drugs domestically, then the law enforcement community would
certainly like to hear it.

One option is to reduce domestic demand through higher drug
incarceration. But the prison population in America has swelled
considerably in the past decade, driven largely by increased drug
arrests and incarceration. Is the answer to lock up even more people,
particularly males in low-income communities who have been hit
hardest by the war on drugs? Another option might be to pour more
resources into reducing drug supply once it arrives in America. But
this method would be akin to fighting terrorism only on American
soil, and ignoring the growing threat internationally.

The fact is that the U.S. does externalize some of its cost in the
war on drugs to Latin American countries, but those same countries
externalize their costs of production (through higher addiction
rates, customs and border violations, etc.) to the U.S. In addition,
the greater the supply of cocaine and other substances, the cheaper
the goods and the greater the use. In the end, coca production is not
an efficient use of a country's resources no matter where in the
world it is happening, Bolivia being no different. To suggest that
the answer is better U.S. domestic prevention and enforcement
oversimplifies a complex problem.

Joseph Peters

Washington