The War on “Drugs” is not more important than people or the environment.

Will Cumberland’s letter to the United States Congress.

Dear Sirs,

I saw a special the other night on 60 minutes covering our “War on Drugs” in Columbia. Images of people suffering from some unknown illness began to appear across my TV screen. I watched as several doctors explained that the symptoms that these people are suffering from, are the same as those experienced by people in areas of high herbicide concentrations. I was shocked to find out that my country is the cause of this problem.

After watching the special, it further strengthen my belief that the current Bush administration’s plan to stop drugs is failing. The current “War on Drugs” has become a war on peasant people and the environment in Columbia. Not that Bush truly cares about either people’s health or the survival of our world, but I cannot stand the fact that my tax dollars are going to support this campaign. The drug problem is not worth making people sick and destroying other forms of life in the process. Once again, the Bush administration cares little for other people and their problems. Besides, it’s only South America right?

I have serious issues with a drug war that causes people to become sick. Thousands of farmers are sick, their families developing rashes and illnesses from a supposedly ‘safe’ herbicide. (One only has to look as far as the war in Vietnam to see how much damage herbicides do to people and the environment.). I refuse to believe Bush, Colin Powell or the administration when they tell us this is beneficial to the health of this nation. Outside of large chemical companies and law enforcement, only Bush cronies in Columbia are benefiting from this “War on Drugs.” The suffering is bore on backs of people; regardless of what crop they are producing. Imagine if government approved herbicide filled planes began spraying Humboldt County in such a fashion to get rid of marijuana, but at the same time causing sickness amongst the residence and wildlife. California would probably go ahead and succeed from the Union. (At this point, I wouldn’t blame them.)

I’m sorry, but I hate to see my country go messing around in South America again. It’s not unknown to some of us in the American populace that the intelligence community has supported several campaigns of terror and genocide in those areas, so as to curtail any major economic powers from those areas from competing with the United States for resources. The concept was (or still is?) sick, un-democratic and very Un-American. Plus, it’s also not unknown how much involvement our own government had in the drug trade coming from that area. How hypocritical we must appear to these people, on the one hand, the wealthy in this country are the major consumers of cocaine, the extreme poor, crack, yet on the other hand we are killing these people because our own people have a drug problem?

I refuse to support any of the administrations efforts in this area. I do not think more cops, stiffer penalties or more money is going to fix the ‘problem’ either. As an American, what should I care what my neighbor does in his free time, least it hurt me or hinder my life. Besides, his or her freedom to use these products should be covered under the Constitution, but has been qaugmired in this needless mess called prohibition. The only people benefiting are the cops that get more money to ‘address’ this problem, the politicians who make money on being ‘hard on crime, and the prison industry that gets more black kids to help make their products while serving off their ‘drug’ sentences.

It doesn’t surprise me that the companies involved include Scott and Monsanto; both companies have products that destroyed people and wildlife. In Centerville, Tennessee, Monsanto’s herbicide poisoned the land so much that it will take years to recover. I know, I used to live there when I worked as a wildlife specialist. I watched an entire sphere of ecology, from the smallest animals in the forest, up to the number of cancer patients in the hospitals. In streams near their old facilities there, the aquatic life is only beginning to make a come back. It’s going to take another 50 years before the land is totally reclaimed.

And here, from the CBS report, is how my government chose to address the issue.

“Scientists working for the State Department could find no link between the spraying and illnesses. They attributed symptoms to unsanitary conditions, common infections in the region and to chemicals used in the cultivation and processing of coca.” –source CBS News

We should be ashamed to have released such made up statements to the American people. Does Bush think we are stupid?

So why should we care about the people in South America? Maybe because they are human, possibly? Why do we run around the world trying to defend freedom (corporate interests?) in all parts of the globe? We claim to support peace and democracy, yet we put money in the hands of tyrants and poison native peoples. Yeah, real American.

We should care about them because they are human beings, and just as much a victim as the crack addicts that line our streets. How dare we be so high and mighty that we simply disregard the rights of others, just to support this silly “War on Drugs.” It’s not a War on Drugs, as Bill Hicks once said so eloquently, it’s a “War on People” and a “War on Personal Freedom”. I didn’t understand it when he said it, but thanks to the Bush Administration, I do now.

Thank you,

Will Cumberland.

Appalachian Mountain Free Press.