THE WAR ON DRUGS

The various armed factions waging civil war in Colombia are financially
dependent on the U.S. drug war.

Forcibly limiting supply while demand for drugs remains constant only
increases the profitability of drug trafficking. For the same reasons
prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States, the drug war has been
doomed from the start.

Even if every last plant in Colombia were destroyed, Americans would
continue to get high. Cut off the flow of cocaine and domestic
methamphetamine production will boom. Thanks to past successes in
eradicating marijuana in Latin America, the corresponding increase in
domestic cultivation has made marijuana America's number one cash crop.

Eradicating plants abroad and building prisons at home is not going to make
the United States "drug-free."

Instead of wasting scarce resources waging a punitive drug war, the United
States should be funding cost-effective drug treatment. Prison cells are
hardly ideal health interventions. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is
worse.

Robert Sharpe

Washington