Pubdate: Sun, 29 Apr 2001
Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)
Copyright: 2001 The Wichita Eagle
Contact:  http://www.wichitaeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/680
Author: Howard Kleinberg, Cox News Service

AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS NEEDS A NEW PLAYING FIELD

Ever since Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs more than two decades 
ago, and appointed his vice president, George Bush, to wage that war, 
this nation has failed to achieve much in the way of success. What 
should be a domestic war has been pursued also as an international 
conflict.

While it has failed to stem the deluge of drugs entering this 
country, it has succeeded in involving us in messy relationships 
involving Latin American nations, accentuated earlier this month by 
our involvement -- however debatable our exact role in it -- in the 
shooting down of an American missionary plane by Peruvian jets, and 
the deaths of an innocent mother and her child.

What are we doing flying around other countries and advising the 
military of those countries about potential drug flights? (Also, what 
are we doing flying surveillance planes close to China, when we have 
satellites sensitive and penetrating enough to photograph our downed 
plane on the Chinese runway?)

The senior Bush -- first as vice president, then as president -- 
continued to pursue a U.S. policy of drug intervention, sometimes 
declaring victory, often claiming great inroads in the war.

We all know this was balderdash. We were losing the war then; we are 
losing the war now. Drugs are as attainable as bubble gum. We have 
become involved in sending our military and our covert agencies into 
harm's way in countries such as Colombia and Peru, and have very 
little to show for it other than others' nationalistic acrimony.

That record drug busts take place at U.S. ports of entry almost daily 
is proof enough that the struggle on our part to prevent the drugs 
from being produced in the first place is an absolute failure. That 
we have ways to block the entry of some of those drugs is an 
indication that we can stem the tide better at home than we can 
outside the country.

Let us admit to ourselves that there never will be a way we can stop 
illegal drugs entirely any more than we can completely stop 
corruption in our political system or child abuse in our homes. We 
can try to manage it and punish those we catch at it, but we can't 
eliminate it entirely.

That we are spending so much money trying to assist drug-producing 
countries in stopping the growing of illegal drugs -- and, at times, 
getting deeper into the internal affairs of those nations than we 
ought to -- has been shown to be wasteful and futile.

We have tried to convince foreign farmers that it is better to grow 
papaya and corn than coca and marijuana, but market price prevails. 
They're going to keep growing the stuff as long as it is more 
profitable.

Our option is to do a better job of keeping illegal drugs from 
entering the United States and to deal more harshly with those who 
traffic in it here, both purveyors and users.

The senior Bush's battle plan for the war on drugs did include many 
dollars and personnel to fight on the domestic front, but they were 
not enough -- are not enough. As recently as last June, the U.S. 
Coast Guard was forced to cut back its operations by close to 10 
percent because of budget concerns. This impacts not only on the war 
on drugs but the never-ending flow of illegal aliens.

We'll never know how much money the CIA is spending to fly around 
Peru, Colombia and elsewhere to try to catch drug dealers at their 
bases, because CIA expenditures are secret. Suffice it to say it's a 
lot.

Wouldn't it be better to take that money, and plenty more -- courtesy 
of the U.S. Congress and the White House -- to beef up our defenses 
close to home, at the shorelines and borders where drug dealers sneak 
in? There we have a greater control and do not infringe on the 
territories of other countries.

The drug war should be continued but on the home front, when the 
crimes against U.S., state and local civil and criminal laws are 
committed. The Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Agency have a tough, 
almost impossible, war to fight, and they're being asked to fight it 
on a too-broad -- and dangerous -- playing field.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe