WE CAN'T MAKE DRUGS DISAPPEAR ENTIRELY

To the editor:

Re: "Nothing to show: U. S. anti-drug policy fails in Colombia" (April 12).

Suppose it would somehow be possible to start at the south bank of the
Rio Grande and totally destroy everything all the way to the Straits
of Magellan. Say we covered every square inch of land with concrete,
leaving not a person, tree, animal, insect or blade of grass alive.

Would that solve America's drug problem? Of course not. Production
would go up somewhere else, but it would not disappear.

We might ask our politicians why they think that temporarily
destroying part of South America will solve our drug problem when
permanently destroying the entire continent would not solve the problem.

If reducing all of Colombia to ashes would not eliminate our drug
supply, surely there cannot be anyone other than politicians so stupid
as to think the problem will go away if we just spray a little poison
on part of the country?

Carl Veley

Houston