Pubdate: Thu, 12 Apr 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: David Weinberg

LEAVING COLOMBIA

To the Editor:

Your April 10 front-page account of Colombians fleeing to the United States 
and elsewhere as a result of increased instability did not mention a 
primary cause of that instability: United States drug prohibition.

Failed prohibitionist policies at home aimed at reducing cocaine 
consumption and increased financial assistance to the Colombian military to 
fight coca production exacerbate the conditions of the decades-old civil 
war in Colombia. Peace and prosperity will continue to elude the Colombian 
people until the United States abandons its misguided and unwinnable war on 
drugs.

DAVID WEINBERG, New York, April 10, 2001
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