WAR ON DRUGS A LOST CAUSE

Re: "Hyde fights Colombian opium" [Robert Novak column, Aug. 18]: Henry
Hyde thinks he can hand out reward money to the Colombian farmers and
villagers for information on the location of opium fields. He might as well
be asking them to turn in their family and friends, or worse--having them
die by the hand of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The war on drugs has been nothing more than a waste of our tax dollars.
They just keep spending more and more each year in Colombia. Heroin is now
on the rise; the street value is six times higher than cocaine. It is now
so potent, you can get the same high from snorting or smoking it; no more
need for needles. And our drug czar, John Walters, director of national
drug control policy, says, hey, it is next to impossible to locate opium
fields in the remote Andes.

Drug prohibition is over 70 years old, and what progress has the government
made? They cannot even show us a dent in the war on drugs. But by John,
they will keep spending our money on this failed government program.

Richard J. Rawlings, Bartonville