Pubdate: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 Source: Washington Times (DC) Copyright: 2000 News World Communications, Inc. Contact: http://www.washtimes.com/ Authors: Robert Sharpe Note: Title supplied by MAP editor US AID TO COLOMBIA IS A COLOSSAL WASTE OF TAX DOLLARS The proposed U.S. aid package to Colombia is a colossal waste of tax dollars ("U.S. aid could fuel strife in Colombia," World, March 21). Even if every last plant in Latin America were killed by the toxic herbicides drug warriors spray, American youths would continue to get high. As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. Cut off the flow of cocaine, and domestic methamphetamine production will boom. Thanks to past successes at eradicating marijuana farms in Latin America, the corresponding increase in domestic pot cultivation has made marijuana America's No. 1 cash crop. Young people who cannot buy pot have been known to use a host of deadly yet legal chemicals to get high. I find it frustrating that the supposed champions of the free market in Congress cannot understand how basic supply and demand dynamics make the drug war futile. At a time in our history when record numbers of Americans are using psychoactive drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin, it amazes me that we still have politicians claiming that a "drug-free" America is possible. No amount of tax dollars spent eradicating plants in Latin America is going to make the United States "drug free." Nor will funding civil war in Colombia win the drug war. For the same reasons that alcohol prohibition failed, the drug war has been doomed from the start. ROBERT SHARPE Students for Sensible Drug Policy George Washington University Washington - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart