DRUG WAR CANNOT BE WON!

Friday, February 10, 2006


To:     The Detroit Free Press
Re:     “Change hard at coca farms”, Feb. 10



John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says his strategy to eradicate drug production in Colombia is working, “Change hard at coca farms”, Feb. 10.

He sites an increase in the U.S. street price of cocaine as evidence that supplies of the drug have contracted and that fact will somehow save lives.

Does he realize that increasing the street price of cocaine will just force addicts to rob more people and houses and in so doing, kill or maim more of the populace, to cover the increase? Does Mr. Walters think that addicts stop using drugs when the price goes up?

Mr. Walters would save lives in the U.S. and the preserve the livelihood of Columbians by just admitting that the war on drugs cannot be won and only by decriminalizing drugs will the public good be served.


Janusz M Szyszko