DRUG WAR REPARATIONS

The Bush administration is planning a rare act of responsibility in the
destructive War on Drugs the U.S. government has been waging for decades:
The administration is paying restitution to Jim and Cory Bowers, the
father-and-son survivors of a CIA-sponsored murderous assault on their
plane in Peru last April.

Jim's wife and 7-month-old daughter (Cory's mom and sister) were killed
when their plane was shot down by the Peruvian air force on suspicion of
carrying drug dealers, in accord with U.S.-sponsored drug interdiction
policy. (In this specific case, CIA contract employees involved in the
surveillance advised caution, but the Peruvians shot it down anyway.)

The $8 million for the Bowers' in Bush's budget proposal is a start (and
clear admission that, despite the Peruvians pulling the trigger, the
administration recognizes that our policies are really to blame). But there
are many more lives literally lost to the waging of this war, from Esequiel
Hernandez to Patrick Dorismund to Donald Scott, plus tens of thousands of
individuals and families ruined by enforcement of drug laws.

If the U.S. government is truly interested in making good on the damage
caused by its War on Drugs, not even Versailles level reparations will be
enough.

Brian Doherty is an associate editor of Reason.