U.S. WASTES FUNDS ON INT'L DRUG WAR

While Bush has cut funding for the domestic war on methamphetamine, the
administration continues to wage an international drug war that stands to
boost meth production.

Plan Colombia is the equivalent of throwing good money after bad. U.S. tax
dollars would be better spent addressing the socioeconomic causes of civil
strife in Colombia rather than applying overwhelming military force to
attack the symptoms. We're not doing the Colombian people any favors by
funding civil war. Nor are Americans being protected from drugs.

Destroy the Colombian coca crop, and production will boom in Peru, Bolivia
and Ecuador. Destroy every last plant in South America, and domestic meth
production will increase to meet the demand for cocainelike drugs.

The Bush administration's self-professed champions of the free market seem
incapable of applying basic economic principles to drug policy. Instead of
wasting resources waging a futile supply-side drug war abroad, we should be
funding cost-effective drug treatment here at home.

- - Robert Sharpe, Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.