OUR APPETITE FOR DRUGS

To the Editor:

Re "U.S. to Step Up Spraying to Kill Colombia Coca" (front page, Sept.
4): It seems typical of American arrogance that it is our drug use
that creates and sustains the drug trade, and yet our solution is to
take aim at the farmers of Colombia.

What difference will it make if we kill all the coca crops in
Colombia? As long as our voracious appetite for drugs exists, it will
be met by someone, somewhere. This seems like another wasteful, futile
effort in 50 years of the so-called war against drugs. The problem
lies within us, and there is where we should look for the solution.

JOAN MISTRETTA

Hammondsport, N.Y., Sept. 4, 2002