AP: Bush Drug Czar Backs Anti- Drug Funding ($3.3B)

[Nambe]

SANTA MARTA, Colombia (AP)

The White House drug czar insisted that Washington should keep funding a costly campaign to root out drug traffickers and fumigate coca crops in Colombia even as he conceded that the program hasn't squeezed the cocaine market in the United States.

John Walters said the $3.3 billion, five-year military aid package known as Plan Colombia has provided Colombian forces with the necessary training, equipment and intelligence to turn the tide in the war on drugs. ..

One concern is whether it's cost-effective. Colombia's counternarcotics police say 85 percent of sprayed crops are quickly replanted by farmers, meaning spray planes must repeatedly fly over the same zones.

Also, drug barons are quick to adapt.

Coca farmers have begun coating the plants with protective chemicals, planting in many small areas that are difficult to spot, or growing coca in national parks where aircraft are prohibited from fumigating, ..

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[alittlelark]

1. The only drug barons we do not like

are the ones not working for US or our friends. Those are the fields that will be poisoned (along w/ the workers, their families, and the inhabitants of nearby communities).

So sick of this shit.

[LauraK]

2. Follow the Money!!!

Who's getting fat on the contracts for this joke. Are some growers being ignored for fun and profit. Is Coca that big of a problem for those that can afford it? Maybe Starbucks should foot this bill.

[w4rma]

3. And the GOP leadership cuts education funding for Americans (nt)