Pubdate: Thu, 04 Aug 2005
Source: Southeast Missourian (MO)
Copyright: 2005 Southeast Missourian
Contact:  http://www.semissourian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1322
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1215/a04.html?100670

DRUG TREATMENT SHOULD BE PRIORITY

To the editor; Regarding your July 28 editorial, "Fighting drugs," not only 
is President Bush seeking to cut funding for the domestic war on 
methamphetamine, but the Bush administration continues to wage an 
international drug war that stands to boost meth production. Plan Colombia 
is the equivalent of throwing good money after bad. U.S. tax dollars would 
be better spent addressing the socioeconomic causes of civil strife in 
Colombia 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. Instead of wasting 
scarce resources waging a futile supply-side drug war abroad, we should be 
funding cost-effective drug treatment here at home.

ROBERT SHARPE, Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom