More than
20 years ago, when I was counsel to the House Judiciary
Committee, we began investigating the many ways that cocaine
was smuggled into the country, including the go-fast boats
described in your Sept. 18 article, "Super-speedboats
piloting Colombia's cocaine trade."
Drug enforcement is supposed to drive the price of
prohibited drugs up, but over the past 20 years, the
wholesale and retail price of cocaine and heroin in
the US has fallen almost steadily.
Ironically, the price of cigarettes has been driven
up by increased taxation, encouraging millions of smokers
to quit; and honest antitobacco advertising is reducing
teenage smoking.
Drug prohibition can never significantly reduce the
availability of drugs. Legal regulation and controls
will give the US and Colombian governments the modern
tools to better control the cocaine trade, the abuse
of cocaine, and the flow of money that finances the
terrorist armies undermining Colombia's society and
economy.
Isn't it time that we demand a realistic strategy
to control drugs, rather than a feel-good crusade that
doesn't work?
Eric E. Sterling
President of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Silver Spring, Md.
