Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jun 2010
Source: News Journal, The (Wilmington, DE)
Copyright: 2010 The News Journal
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/1c6Xgdq3
Website: http://www.delawareonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/822
Author: Tom Butler
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n369/a07.html

LAWS AND INCARCERATION HAVE FAILED IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

Your editorial on the drug war ("Drug war can't succeed without 
refocusing," May 17) was based on erroneous assumptions.

Drug abuse reduction hinges on law enforcement and interdiction, 
treatment and education. Since we began the Nixon "War on Drugs," the 
overwhelming percentage of federal expenditures has been on law 
enforcement. Tons of confiscated drugs are displayed on the news with 
regularity, but the amount interdicted is a drop in the bucket.

Regarding international efforts, it is important to remember that 
former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld forbade the destruction 
of poppy fields in Afghanistan, a policy that has stood. I was 
recently in Peru, where a large percentage of cocaine originates.

At a briefing at the U.S. Embassy, we were told that our government 
is paying coca farmers to grow other crops. However, when talking 
with locals in the Peruvian Andes, we were told that the drug dealers 
simply outbid the U.S. government, causing the farmers to continue 
their production of coca.

Encouraged by your editorial, governments will continue to increase 
funding for law enforcement and build prisons while reducing 
treatment and education funding. This is a failed approached verified 
by 40 years of frustration.

Tom Butler, Camden
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom