European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 19, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday september 19,1989 columns William Buckley interdiction is not the answer to drug crisis Well what drug prevention has got us now in Colombia is civil War and we May As Well Call it that trained though we arc to refer to great big wars like Korea As police actions. The drug Cartel has now publicly threat ened to kill 10 judges in Colombia for every drug trafficker extradited to the United states and the minister of jus Tice the following Day demurely announced that All things considered she would just As soon have another Job. As for colombian judges they will soon have to be recruited from deathrow. The accumulation of evidence is in ending. Richard by rec writing a Spe Cial report for the new York times describes the use of the . Highway system by the drug paddlers. He begins by quoting a secret Cable from the narcotics intelligence Center in Elpaso Texas sent out to All hands Maryland state police reported i Pound cocaine seizure concealed in stuffed Teddy Bear. Two Teddy bears discovered in vehicle one heavier than the other. Velcro closure on heavier Bear opened and cocaine  these arc Nice heartwarming Little triumphs but of so slight. If the mayor of Miami is to be believed our whole anti drug Effort is interdicting something on the order of i percent of the production. By rec reports flatly thai Law enforcement officials acknowledge that it is a losing Battle to keep the stuff from coming into . Territory so that the next line of de sense will be the highways. And How arc we doing there in 1988, 41 state police agencies re ported seizures of 80,000 pounds of marijuana 10,000 pounds of cocaine and 22 pounds of heroin. The cocaine would have a wholesale Price of $45 million to $138 million depending on purity and Market conditions. If you think that is a lot alas you arc mistaken. The drug business rings in at somewhere Between $150 billion and $200 billion a year. We re not bragging for a minute reports sgt. Roy her run of the Missouri Highway patrol. We know we re not touching the  the last line of defense we have is the Highway a narcotics intelligence officer is quoted. Once it gets past that line the Odds arc probably one in Helen Thomas caught of Floh Thul o Colow a million of getting an entire Load of dope off the  and we must not assume that the War having come to the highways no one any longer dares to Fly. A Tele phone tap detected a drug trafficker offering to pay $ 100,000 per run to the Pilot of a Small plane to make five runs into Texas from 100 Miles South of the Border. That s $500,000 in a couple of Days which is better than robbing Banks. But the Prospect yawned Back Over the phone that he was going to Virginia for three months and would be unavailable but his partner might be  where Are we going with All of this the feds arc giving up at the conventional level. We Don t think interdiction is the answer reports a special agent from Elpaso. There arc More ways to bring the drugs into the coun try than we have the ability or where withal to Stop. You can t just go Willy Nilly stopping people in the country. The answer is not interdiction but combining Law enforcement and reducing  that s right and the demand is sharply reduced among College Stu dents 37 percent in five year which is very Good news but says nothing about the galloping Pace of drug con sumption in the cities and especially in the ghettos or about our Creepy crawl in the direction of the chaotic conditions of Colombia it is safer to walk the streets of Johannesburg at night than those of new York. Bobby Kennedy made famous a line from Shaw which he used in almost every speech. Some men see things As they arc and ask Why 1 dream of things that never were and ask Why not Well it is the duty of conservatives to declaim against lost causes when the ancillary results of pursuing them Are tens of thousands of innocent victims and a gradual corruption of the machinery of the state. We conservatives Are not against fighting for lost causes which after All is what the clergy vow to do until death but we insist on designating them As such. Berke ends his Story by quoting the director of the drug abuse research group at the University of California at los Angeles who was asked what could be done about the interstate travel of drugs. We need a urine test for cars. That s what we  Universal press Syndicate it s time to take a Chance Back Gorbachev reforms after the allies triumphed in world War ii the indomitable Winston Churchill said in Vic tory  so instead of extracting the spoils of Victory with a vengeance the allies began the rehabilitation of Germany and Japan and the fruit of those efforts can be seen in current Western Prosperity and longstanding popularly elected governments in for Mer enemy countries. The Marshall plan was the . Inspiration in the postwar Era bringing massive Aid and technical knowledge to restore democratic institutions but the various tripartite treaties Between the United Stales Britain and the soviet Union sealed communist control Over Eastern Europe. Years later the failure of the communist system now is Manifest even in the soviet Union where people hunger for consumer goods and often prefer Madonna to Marx throughout the East bloc. With reforms in Poland and Hungary and with East Ger mans fleeing Over Borders clearly the workers of the world have made a Choice. But while Western leaders congratulate them selves and watch the phenomenal changes behind what was once the Iron curtain they Are missing out. In t this the moment they have been wailing for when the people in the East bloc would choose Freedom they need a helping hand the kind of help that Only the industrialized nations can provide to bring them into the 20th Century in terms of the availability of food and Quality of life. Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev whose parcs troika and glasnost economic and political reforms arc helping change the communist world also needs the kind of assistance the . Provided nazi Ger Many and Japan after world War ii. With hard line communists seeking to defeat his reforms and with the other end of the spectrum represented by Maverick politician Boris Yeltsin demanding a faster Pace of Progress Gorbachev is trying to hold his ground. He desperately needs time and resources and it appears for that reason he is decrying what he sees As president Bush s go slow arms control policy much of the funding Gorbachev could turn to Domestic use continues to be budgeted for his military. Aid to Moscow to stimulate its economic reforms and to promote democracy May seem far fetched at the moment but then so was the idea of a free elec Tion in the soviet Union. The revolt of the soviet Baltic republics proves the truth that a Little bit of Freedom is a dangerous thing for totalitarian states. Granted the United states with its budget prob lems is in no mood to dig into its pockets to provide a Long term assistance package. But the president keeps saying he wants Gorbachev to succeed in his reforms. The unconvinced in Bush s administration arc sounding ominous notes Many of them predict ing Gorbachev will fail some feeling it is All a Tro Jan horse and there is no turning Back from communism. Scepticism seems to dominate the Whitehouse. What is needed is a Little risk taking a visionary willing to take a Chance that Freedom will win and that it should be aided in every Way. United press International