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United States' answer to drug war proves harmful
By Ben Lando
Opinion Columnist
October 08, 2003

In order for the war on terrorism to be successful, citizens of every country, especially those of the United States, need to do their part. It's the effort by ordinary citizens -- keeping a look out for terrorists and those who help them, staying up-to-date on the risk those people of interest pose and taking action when necessary -- that will be a key to victory and eventually ensure the safety of all citizens of this planet.

So, as the self-proclaimed director of the citizen's faction of the U.S. Homeland Security Department (HSD), I request all taxpaying U.S. citizens to turn themselves in to the regional HSD office. Those who cooperate will only be charged with one count of financing terrorist activities in Colombia -- a deal I suggest you take, or be hunted down like your al-Qaida, Taliban and Republican Guard brethren.

U.S. taxpayers contributed to a $605 million check for military assistance to Colombia last year, money that paid for chemicals to be sprayed on the citizens of that country. One could compare that to what Saddam Hussein did to the Kurds, since the U.S. government knew about that as well, but in the Colombia case, the U.S. government helped plan the chemical attack, and paid for it, as part of a program called Plan Colombia.

In an attempt to curb the flow of cocaine from Colombia to the millions of cokeheads in this country, the U.S. and Colombian governments have decided it's OK to drop loads of the enhanced version of the weed killer Roundup across the countryside in order to kill the fields of coca plants that are grown there. But when dropping chemicals from crop-dusting planes at much higher altitudes than the process is designed for, there is no accuracy; when the crop dusting planes strike, part of the chemical falls straight to the ground, and the rest hovers in the sky, literally, like a black cloud. Since there's no controlling it after it is unleashed it from the planes, it falls beyond the intended patches of coca plants, onto legal agriculture and livestock, into bodies of water and, most deplorably, into the lungs of people.

The warnings on the bottle of regular Roundup should say it all; urging users not to ingest the chemical because it will irritate the digestive tract "as demonstrated by signs and symptoms of mouth membrane irritations, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea." It also warns against adding it to bodies of water "such as ponds, lakes or streams as Roundup can be harmful to certain aquatic organisms." Unfortunately, the lives and livelihoods of innocent people aren't valued that much by the U.S. and Colombian governments, in the context of the 30-year struggle called the "war on drugs."...