More Terrible Than Death

by Robin Kirk

"The estimated 6 million Americans who use cocaine and heroin spend at least $46 billion a year on the drugs. For the past two decades, the United States government has spent more than $7 billion a year to destroy the coca and poppy plants used to manufacture cocaine and heroin, to prevent the illegal drugs from arriving in the U.S., and prosecute those who traffic in them. Yet these drugs are cheaper and more plentiful than ever. The "war on drugs" is a spectacular failure.". "At first, the effects of America's drug consumption on Colombia were mainly visible in the lavish lifestyles of a few kingpins, an increasingly corrupt political process, and the many lives cut short as a result of the violence linked to drug trafficking. Now, illegal armies from the political left and right are prime beneficiaries, and they use drug cash to equip thousands of troops to fight over the spoils. Massacres have become a daily horror, and no place in the country is truly safe. Caught in the crossfire