Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 Source: Northwest Florida Daily News (FL) Copyright: 2002 Northwest Florida Daily News Contact: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/313 Author: Robert Sharpe Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n077/a05.html LOOK TO EUROPE Your Jan. 16 editorial ("Folly in Colombia") was right on target. Plan Colombia has the potential to spread both civil war and coca production throughout South America. U.S. tax dollars would be better spent addressing the underlying 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. Rather than waste tax dollars attempting to overcome immutable laws of supply and demand, policy-makers should look to the lessons learned from America's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition. While U.S. politicians use the drug war's collateral damage to justify its intensification, European countries are embracing "harm reduction," a public health alternative based on the principle that both drug use and drug prohibition have the potential to cause harm. Examples of harm reduction include needle exchange programs to stop the spread of HIV, marijuana regulation aimed at separating the hard and soft drug markets, and drug treatment alternatives that do not require incarceration as a prerequisite. ROBERT SHARPE, Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake