Pubdate: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC) Copyright: 2003 Evening Post Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.charleston.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567 Author: Robert Sharpe Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n329/a09.html DRUG TRAFFICKING According to a March 1 editorial, the three U.S. technicians kidnapped in Colombia "were presumably under contract to the U.S. government to monitor drug trafficking." If South America's rainforests are to survive, the self-professed champions of the free market in Congress had better learn to apply basic economic principles to drug policy. In an effort to eradicate illicit coca plants in rebel-held areas, toxic herbicides are sprayed from above, hitting water supplies, staple crops and people. The aerial eradication campaign drives peasants further into the Amazon basin, which in turn leads to more rainforest destruction. Cut off the flow of cocaine, and domestic methamphetamine production will boom to meet the demand for cocaine-like drugs. Thanks to past successes at eradicating marijuana in Latin America, the corresponding increase in domestic cultivation has made marijuana America's No. 1 cash crop. Eradicating plants abroad and building prisons at home is not going to make the U.S. "drug-free." For the same reasons alcohol prohibition failed, the drug war has been doomed from the start. Instead of wasting scarce resources waging a punitive drug war, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment. ROBERT SHARPE Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance 925 15th Street, NW - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake