PLAN COLOMBIA HELPS DRUG SUPPLIERS

The Jan. 17 editorial "Don't Fund Colombia's Civil War" was right on
target. The $1.6 billion Plan Colombia will not negate the immutable laws
of supply and demand that drive illegal drug production. By artificially
inflating the prices of otherwise worthless crops, the U.S. government is
unwittingly providing price supports for both communist guerrillas and
brutal paramilitary death squads who tax the coca trade.

A crackdown on coca cultivation in one region leads to increased
cultivation elsewhere. When faced with the choice of abject poverty and the
inflated black market profits of illicit crops, many farmers will choose
the latter. As for the alternative crop funding that Plan Colombia
provides, creating a global welfare state in which every developing country
is paid not to grow illicit crops is a rather expensive proposition.

The U.S. drug war poses a real threat to the Amazon ecosystem. This
environmental tragedy is compounded by the fact that the destruction of
every last plant in South America would not stop drug use in America.
America's cocaine users would simply switch to domestically produced
methamphetamine.

Sooner or later the self-professed champions of the free market in Congress
are going to have to wake up to the drug war's failure.

ROBERT SHARPE, M.P.A. Program Officer

Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

Washington, D.C.