Pubdate: Wed, 28 Feb 2001
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2001 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact:  One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115
Fax: (617) 450-2031
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Forum: http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/vox/p-vox.html
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n350/a09.html

PROHIBITION LESSONS ARE RELEVANT TO DRUG WAR

Regarding your Feb. 27 article "Side effects hit Plan Colombia": Plan 
Colombia will not protect Americans from drugs.

Fumigate the Colombian coca crop and production will shift to neighboring 
Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Destroy every last plant in South America and 
domestic methamphetamine production will boom 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.

With no controls for age, the thriving black market is very much 
youth-oriented. The drug war's unintended consequences are routinely used 
to justify its continuation by unscrupulous drug war profiteers and 
opportunistic politicians.

Robert Sharpe, Washington Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center Drug 
Policy Foundation
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