cannabisnews.com: Bringing Drug War Back Home Bringing Drug War Back Home Posted by CN Staff on July 05, 2005 at 08:11:27 PT Opinion Source: Santa Maria Times Washington, D.C. -- Congress is in the midst of a debate over the future funding of America's war on drugs, especially the phase of the war that takes place in South America. Federal drug czar John Walters told lawmakers last week that America is "heading in the right direction and we are winning" the war against drugs. He proudly points to the fact that cocaine production in the Andes has fallen 29 percent in the past four years, and Colombia's opium crop was cut in half between 2003 and 2004. What Walters didn't tell lawmakers was the other side of the story. According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, while cocaine production fell 11 percent in Colombia last year, it soared by nearly 24 percent in Peru and 35 percent in Bolivia. Overall, coca cultivation increased 2 percent in the Andes region - where Walters claims "we are winning" the war on drugs. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reckons American taxpayers have given $5.4 billion to the war of drugs in South America in the past four years, but that expenditure has had no effect on drug availability in the United States, and prices are at an all-time low. So, what has $5.4 billion bought in South America? Apparently, American dollars - though virtually worthless in reducing the flow of drugs to the United States - are invaluable in helping nations such as Colombia fight internal crime. Plan Colombia, which is the strategy the Bush is promoting in the drug war, has been a resounding success at reducing street killings and village massacres associated with the drug business. In other words, U.S. tax dollars are fighting crime in the streets of Bogota, but are having little or no effect on the flow of drugs to Dallas, Philadelphia or Los Angeles. One senior State Department official, in defense of the Bush administration's drug wars policy, said, "You adjust your tactics ... there's no inclination on the part of the administration to give up just because it's tough." That's an admirable display of grit, but it doesn't answer the question of why America's taxpayers have to keep shelling out billions of dollars a year to keep fighting a war on drugs that has been, and will likely continue to be, a dismal failure. The money is being spent in the wrong countries. The real war on drugs should be in American homes and classrooms - explaining to people the wisdom and logic of not saddling yourself with a drug habit in the first place. Source: Santa Maria Times (CA)Published: July 5, 2005Copyright: 2005 Pulitzer Central Coast NewspapersContact: smtletters pulitzer.netWebsite: http://www.santamariatimes.com/CannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by 13th step on July 06, 2005 at 05:47:16 PT If the drug flow actually stops from Colombia Then they won't be getting any more of that "aid".$5.4 billion, you say? [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by OverwhelmSam on July 06, 2005 at 04:44:56 PT Simply Delusional. That about sums it up. People have deluded themselves into believing that humans will stop taking drugs. Totally delusional!It's human nature to get high, and every new generation is going to do it too. My hope is that people stop deluding themselves, and allow the relatively safe use of marijuana to alleviate Society of the use of more dangerous drugs. I swear that if the health and sobriety freaks had a brain, they'd take it out and play with it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by legalizeit on July 05, 2005 at 17:20:25 PT The Bush I got a kick out of reading the passage "the strategy the Bush is promoting in the drug war" in the article.Kind of reminds me of the Borg Collective in Star Trek."We are the Bush. You will service us. Resistance is futile."How appropriate!As far as the columnist's view on the WOsD, from how many angles do you have to beat a stinking, putrefying horse to be sure it's really dead? People have been hearing the same pablum for decades, and it does nothing either way on drug use. People will make their own decisions about it. If they think cannabis is such a hideous, vile weed, fine. Just don't cram the anti-cannabis religion down the throats of responsible adults! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on July 05, 2005 at 08:56:52 PT Drug War gravy train That's an admirable display of grit, but it doesn't answer the question of why America's taxpayers have to keep shelling out billions of dollars a year to keep fighting a war on drugs that has been, and will likely continue to be, a dismal failure.What reporters keep NOT talking about is the fact that so much of that money is going into the pockets of law enforcement, corrupt and otherwise, US and foreign. If one is the chief of a narco squad either in Bogota or Boulder, and is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year flowing to his "department", and gets to skim some of that off the top each time (don't think it doesn't happen here too, because it does), he'd fight to keep that gravy train rolling. No matter who he has to piss off or even kill (well maybe not in Boulder but in NYC, or L.A....) to keep it coming.To keep corrupt "drug officials" in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, etc etc (and quite a few in the USA too) RICH---that's why America's taxpayers have to keep shelling out billions of dollars a year to keep fighting a war on drugs that is a dismal failure.And it has to STOP. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 05, 2005 at 08:40:37 PT Two Articles Worth a Look Hi Everyone,Here are two articles and I would post the one but I think they have the titles mixed up so I thought since I'm not sure that I should post the links. http://www.star.niu.edu/articles/?id=10786http://www.star.niu.edu/articles/?id=10785 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment