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Bush's Cocaine Problem
Mother Jones had a little fun with cocaine in March. Or, what I meant to say was, Mother Jones had a little fun reporting on cocaine in our March/April issue. Jokes aside, we contended that the ambitious and expensive plan enacted in 2000 to eradicate Colombian coca by aerially spraying crops has not significantly reduced cocaine production or the availability of the drug in the United States. In fact, we indicated that as much as 40 percent of the sprayed crops are not coca at all, but rather rainforest or food crops.
Today's American Prospect online augments MoJo's admittedly jaunty foray into the white stuff. Based on the personal stories of peasants in Colombia's cocafied southern districts (well worth a read) and a report released—albeit belatedly—by the State Department itself, the article reveals that even the government's own numbers demonstrate that Plan Colombia hasn't made a dent in the drug trade. And that peasants will continue growing coca—planes be damned—until they are provided with another way to earn money. And they need more, rather than less, money every time their food crops are destroyed.
Let's hear an Amen for Sandro Calvani, director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime in Bogotá, who observes, "You cannot change a dysfunctional social-economic situation by force alone … The only way to make elimination sustainable is to convince people to make a new life plan. The people must be at the center of the change."
But Calvani's common sense is Bush's anathema. In fact, the Bush administration is increasingly spending its massive Colombian aid package on attempts to corral the cocaine-funded FARC guerrillas, rather than on aid to poor coca farmers or more effective eradication efforts. TAP reports that, while FARC has indeed retreated, the conservative Colombian government is forming ever-tighter alliances with the paramilitary death squads originally formed to fight the guerillas:
Also funded by cocaine and considered terrorists by the State Department, paramilitary forces have fast become some of the country's largest drug traffickers. In other words, U.S. taxpayer money meant to fight the drug trade is funding allies who are, in part, fueling it.
But because the rest of Latin America can't stand Bush, he's stuck with Colombia's corrupt, right-wing, human-rights abusing government. Wow, it feels like déjà-vu all over again! Get ready: We may have to attack Colombia 20 years from now.
Re: "We may have to attack Colombia 20 years from now." presumes that in 2027 we end up with another catastrophic White House administration, trying, perhaps to surpass the infamy of the current administration. For the survival of this country, that must not happen.
As to the coca-farming issue, all the U.S. has to do is immediately erradicate ALL U.S. tobacco farms; and, using that process as a set example, apply its lessons, with the full co-operation of other governments, when asked to do so. We need to clean our own house first: hypocrisy doesn't sell well these days.
I read an article or saw a report that the planes administering the Round Up herbicide flew too high to effectively eradicate the coca plants. What this means of course that the hericide spreads to unintended[?] foliage and that more Round Up must be purchased by the government to keep the unending war of eradification going and is good for profits.
Of course, if they just legalised and taxed it - we might not have so many drug cartels making so much money and spending it on guns to fight allied governments. Funny, is it not, that it is the very policies of a pro law and order group that causes so much of the lawlessness.
Bolt1493: I agree. Here is my pie in the sky vision of what I would like to see:
1) Legalize all drugs.
2) Do not allow advertising of any drug, including the ones that are advertised today; let's not remain a society of overmedicated fools.
3) Put a vice tax on all recreational drugs.
4) Ensure that the vice tax must be used only for public service anti-drug advertisements and for rehab programs for the drugs that are addictive. (Yes, this part will be difficult, but not impossible.)
5) Set a minimum age for recreational drug purchase, something that is a tad difficult to do with today's drug dealers.
6) Enforce no drugs and driving laws, which is currently a real problem, at least in the case of alcohol.
7) Sell all recreational drugs from behind the pharmacy counter to prevent advertising in the display.
This will have the effects of:
1) Instantly putting gun-toting drug lords out of business.
2) Freeing up space in prisons for real criminals.
3) Freeing up court staff and police for law enforcement of real crimes with real victims.
4) Reducing drug use.
5) Reducing the ill effects of drug addiction on society.
6) Increasing respect for increasingly rational laws.
7) Saving money, as all costs to society from drug use will now be paid by the drug users.
8) Reducing transmission of AIDS and hepatitis from injected drugs. Presumably, these would now be sold in single use syringes.
9) Putting the profits in the hands of profiteering drug companies and politicians, the latter through lobbying. This is bad, but a lesser evil than gun-toting drug lords, at least hopefully so.
10) Reducing deaths from overdose due to inconsistent drug strength.
As an aside, I read that in one of the years soon after 9/11, we spent $800 million on making sure that our borders are secure against a nuclear threat, when $2 billion would have been required to do it right. In that same year, we spent $4 billion on the war on drugs. So, there's also a priorities issue to me. This may have been from a Mother Jones article. I'm no longer sure. Even if these numbers are incorrect though, I think we have better ways to spend this money than on protecting us from a victimless crime.
So this is Bush's cocaine
So this is Bush's cocaine problem... Can you prove everything you said here? I find it hard to believe that these things are that obvious, even if they were true. There are a lot things we don't know or can't confirm, what can we do about the drug production in Colombia? Nothing besides talking...
Renno, drug abuse treatment center
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