June 12, 1998 -- We need to take a frank and honest look at the global drug control efforts.
This was the message at a Women’s Division and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)-sponsored panel discussion on Tuesday, June 9, at the Church Center for the United Nations. As the three-day Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on the World Drug Problem ended in New York on Wednesday, some panelists left feeling that governments need to ask tougher questions about the issue.
Concerned about the threat that drugs pose to children and society, participants in the panel discussion agreed that there is no choice but for countries to work together to reduce the harms associated with drugs. However, they also felt that the "war on drugs" is causing more harm than drug abuse itself, sharing their experiences of government efforts resulting in human rights violations and promoting alternative solutions and analysis.
Omayra Morales, panelist and secretary for the Andean Council of Coca Leaf Growers, which brings together growers from Columbia, Peru and Bolivia, said that United States planes and pilots continue to fumigate peasant coca fields to kill crops, but instead are harming children in Columbia. Besides poisoning water and killing surrounding rainforest, the fumigation is causing children to lose their hair and profuse health effects like vomiting, diarrhea, and burning of their eyes and hands. In recent times as peasants and women peacefully protested this abuse, Columbian military have turned to violence in response using U.S.-supplied weapons, according to Ms. Morales.
In 1997 the United States government sent $169 million in arms to the Columbian government, including Blackhawk helicopters. According to Amnesty International reports, 13 of 14 Columbian paramilitary groups used these weapons in human rights abuses. They were weapons that the United States government intended for the war on drugs. Only 2% of political killings in Columbia were related to drugs. 70% were related to the government or paramilitary thugs.
This war is producing victims, according to Ms. Morales. "From the air, how are you going to tell the difference between the peasants and guerillas?" asked Ms. Morales. "You’re not. We’re all guerillas to these people."
"This problem has as much to do with helping governments fight against their enemies as it does with drugs," says Mia Adjali, executive secretary for global policy for the Women’s Division, General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. "People in the United States are scared about the drug problem. Yet the barb wire on the borders, attacking immigrants, or imprisonment is not the answer. We need to look deeper into the problem."
Ms. Morales comes from a village in the heart of Columbia’s Amazon rain forest, where coca traditionally has been grown for medicinal purposes, to help heal wounds, for its high nutritional values, and for religious rituals. "Coca is not cocaine," says Ms. Morales, explaining that chemicals are needed to make the illegal drug. With half hectare farms, peasants hardly make a living. It takes two crops a year to yield enough coca leaves, for which they get $900, and which eventually yields one kilo of cocaine. Yet, it is the only crop they can produce to sustain their lives because of transportation issues from the isolated region. "Yuca would be a good crop, but we can’t transport it out. People are willing to pay to fly coca out of our region."
Participants also said that the large plantations of Columbia produce the majority of coca plants for cocaine sale. Unharmed by the war on drugs, they can "pay off" fumigators and authorities.
On Monday, President Clinton announced to the United Nations that this war will continue, with an estimated $17 billion of federal money going to the cause. This would be in addition to expenditures of states estimated at $40 billion dollars.
Ximena Useche Gomez, another panelist who is an attorney and professor in Columbia, says that short-term and long-term solutions are needed to honestly evaluate the world-wide drug problem. "In the short-term, we must emphasize the end of war," she says, noting that the Columbia situation is explosive. Peasants and children are being hurt as governments continue to militarize with the help of the United States. Such militarization build-up allows governments to deal not only with drug problems, but with internal opposition, such as in Columbia. "The United States becomes involved in an internal problem by giving money to the government and guerillas for arms," says Ms. Gomez.
Participants in the panel proposed open dialogue and a more critical analysis of the issue. Instead of looking at rhetorical proposals to create drug-free societies, they emphasized the need for better health efforts, education measures, and economic development. They stated that current policies lead to more drug markets, criminals, diseases and human rights abuses.
The Women’s Division, who co-sponsored the dialogue, represents United Methodist Women, an organization of one million members. The organization’s purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders, and advocate for social justice. Members raise more than $23 million a year for programs and projects related to women, children, and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.
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