Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jun 2001
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Matthew Briggs
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n990/a04.html

BACKFIRE POTENTIAL

In response to the remarkably balanced June 3 article by Pedro Ruz
Gutierrez:

The U.S.-backed Plan Colombia could very well spread both coca production 
and civil war throughout South America. Communist guerilla movements do not 
originate in a vacuum.

U.S. tax dollars would be better spent addressing the socioeconomic causes 
of civil strife rather than applying overwhelming military force to attack 
the symptoms. We're not doing the Colombian people any favors by funding 
civil war.

Nor are Americans being protected from drugs.

Destroy the Colombian coca crop and production will boom in 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. The self-professed champions of the free market in 
Congress are seemingly incapable of applying basic economic principles to 
drug policy.

Rather than waste resources attempting to overcome immutable laws of supply 
and demand, policymakers should look to the lessons learned from America's 
disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition. Drug laws fuel organized 
crime and violence, which is then used to justify increased drug war 
spending. It's time to end this madness.

Matthew Briggs,
Research Associate,
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation,
NEW YORK, N.Y.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake