DRUG WAR DOESN'T HURT TERRORISTS; IT HELPS THEM

The U.S. government has gotten accustomed over the years to orchestrating
world events to fit its own agenda. In our name, the government keeps
American troops in more than half the countries of the globe, openly
supports brutal regimes and uses its intelligence agencies to manipulate the
policies of foreign governments. But no matter how hard it tries, the play
never seems to unfold as scripted.

Still, it is in the name of the war on drugs that the United States truly
excels in showing how poorly equipped it is to act as director of
international affairs.

Since the 1970s, administration after administration has sought to enlist
foreign nations in its jihad against arbitrarily prohibited, but nonetheless
popular, recreational drugs. The results have often been quite similar to
the U.S. experience, with widespread corruption of police, judges and
politicians; gang wars and drive-by shootings; and a general increase in
drug use.

Yet America's war on drugs manages to escape the shame of one of its most
horrific consequences: the destruction of thousands of lives in this and
other countries. For the drug war has led to the enrichment and expansion of
vicious terrorist groups around the world, even the one responsible for the
horrible attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Sadly, the government continues to
ignore the warning signs and feeds the mouth that bites us all.

Heavily influential for more than 20 years, "narco-terrorist" organizations
are conglomerations of leftist rebels, international terrorist rings, arms
dealers and the drug cartels themselves. In "Beyond the War on Drugs:
Overcoming a Failed Public Policy," author Steven Wisotsky pointed out more
than a decade ago that "the War on Drugs has seriously undermined the power
and stability of the central governments (of Peru and Colombia), delivering
effectual control of large regions ... to ... alliances of drug traffickers
and guerrilla armies." In short, to terrorists.

How is this possible? Thanks to the massive profits they derive from the
illegal drug trade, "narco-terrorists" are able to buy control of anything
they need to sustain their business. In the "large regions" where they rule,
they serve as the de facto government, supplying schools, sports teams and
security to local peasants.

With the support of indigenous farmers, they grow coca and opium with
impunity, raising incredible sums of money to finance their terrorist
activities and, worse, to create the conditions for international
cooperation with other terrorist groups, a fact made clear by a recent
anti-terrorism report that showed Hezbollah training camps in the
"tri-border region" of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

The connection between drugs and terrorism is not exactly the world's
best-kept secret. In March 2002, in a statement before the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.,
reported that "opium production in Afghanistan (under the Taliban) accounted
for 72 percent of production worldwide" and was used to "shelter Osama bin
Laden and other al-Qaida terrorists." He similarly indicated that bin Laden
"provided protection to heroin-processing labs, was a part owner in numerous
labs, (and was) part owner of one load shipped to the U.S."

Even a casual knowledge of economics is enough to understand that, rather
than hurting the drug trade, the drug war is its greatest boon. The
popularity of drugs alone is sufficient to drive up prices through intense
demand. Interdicting or limiting the supply of a given drug will merely
raise the price it brings on the market even higher, meaning larger profits
to those who deal in drugs. And in the Latin American and radical Islamic
countries where the dealers are typically terrorists, this means more money
for terrorism.

Even the Office of National Drug Control Policy inadvertently admitted the
effect of its own policies by broadcasting national advertisements telling
people who use drugs that they are supporting terrorism. If helping to put
money in the pockets of drug dealers is akin to aiding terrorist causes,
then by continuing to drive up the price of drugs the U.S. government is the
biggest supporter of terrorism in the world.

The war on drugs might possibly go down in history as the worst domestic
policy blunder in American history. After more than 30 years of fighting,
the cost in lives, dollars, the erosion of our social and moral fabric, and
the impact on law-enforcement and political institutions may never be fully
known. Adding insult to injury, in all the years that the government has
been battling to make people stop using drugs, it has been helping to enrich
those who wish to fight terrorist wars against innocent people everywhere.