U.S. DRUG POLICIES IMPOSED ON BOLIVIA

* I read with interest the article about the U.S.once again forcing its
failed drug policies on a struggling Third World nation, Bolivia (Sept.
29). Third World nations will stop producing narcotics as soon as the U.S.
populace quits using them. Neither is going to happen.

Our drug policies do not work, yet the government insists on pumping
billions of dollars into a program that kills innocent people, promotes
crime and crowds our jails with nonviolent drug offenders. U.S.
policymakers must realize that the "war on drugs" has failed. Surely, we
would be better served if law enforcement focused its resources on
controlling the unending violence which plagues our society. Taking the
enormous profits out of the drug trade would immediately lower violent
crime. To those of you who do not think drugs should be decriminalized,
answer the following question: Do you think drug growers, smugglers and
dealers want illegal narcotics legal? You are on their side.

ROBERT SOMERS Newport Beach

* Robert Charles, a counsel for a House subcommittee on national security,
is quoted in the article as saying, "The best way to fight cocaine is to go
to the plant." Attitudes like this, which are the basis of much of our drug
policy, fail consistently to take into account the demand for cocaine in
the United States and Europe.

The certification process that the U.S. has mandated on our Latin American
neighbors is misguided. It imposes unilateral policy initiatives such as
crop eradication and stiffer sentences for lowlevel growers without
attacking the root cause of the hemisphere's drug problem: U.S.
consumption. In addition, money that could be spent by these cashstrapped
nations for economic development is wasted on eradication efforts that are
doomed to marginal results at best due to the lack of other economic
enterprises for rural populations.

EDUARDO MARTINEZ
Placentia

* Washington's drug policy in Bolivia will fail because it does not take
into account the culture of the Aymara and Quechua people and their
relationship to coca. The Bolivian people do not have a drug problem, the
United States does. In the meantime hundreds of millions of our tax dollars
are wasted on creating strife in other lands.

GARY MILLIKEN
Santa Barbara

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