APPLYING MARKET PRINCIPLES TO DRUG POLICY

The environmental devastation described in "Coca snuffs out Peru forest"
(World, Sept. 30) is a direct result of U.S. drug policy in South America.
In an effort to eradicate coca crops, toxic herbicides are sprayed from
above, hitting water supplies, staple crops and people. Aerial eradication
campaigns drive peasants deeper into the Amazon basin, which in turn leads
to more deforestation. If South America's rain forests are to survive, the
self-professed champions of the free market in Congress had better learn to
apply basic economic principles to drug policy.

As long as there is a demand for drugs, there will be a supply. Destroy the
Colombian coca crop, and production will boom in neighboring Peru, Bolivia
and Ecuador. Destroy every last plant in South America, and domestic
methamphetamine production will increase to meet the demand for
cocaine-like drugs. Instead of wasting billions of tax dollars on a futile
supply-side war abroad, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment
here at home.

ROBERT SHARPE,Program officer,Drug Policy Alliance,Washington