Reason Online: “Legalize Now! War-weary Colombia—and its Conservative Party—consider ending the drug war.”
Many Colombians and foreign observers feel fumigations treat the symptom rather than the underlying illness. While the poverty that propels farmers to plant coca remains, any attempt to stop them from doing so will in all likelihood be futile. “At the moment, we’re spending around $5,000 per hectare fumigated,” says the U.N.’s Sergio Calvani. “If that money could be distributed among the peasants, then Colombia would be like Switzerland.”
(Via Rock Creek Rambler.)