The so-called "War on Drugs" is a cover for two very important policies of the rich and powerful.

First, it provides an excuse to incarcerate a large proportion of poor black and brown youths, for whom there are few jobs and who might rebel against their dire condition. Also, the deleterious effects of these drugs on rational thought keeps these youths from organizing themselves into a potent political force.

Second, it provides an excuse to keep the poor in other countries under control. The weapons, training and U.S. advisers that go to Colombia, Mexico and and Peru are not for drug interdiction, but to fight leftist guerillas or establish paramilitary groups which kill union organizers, peasant leaders and leftists candidates for public office.

In Colombia and Mexico, hundreds of leftist candidates, some former guerillas who laid down their weapons under an amnesty, have been assassinated by these right-wing paramilitary groups. The media in the United States always preach that these guerilla armies should try democracy and electoral politics and then when they do, they get slaughtered. Talk about the evil empire!

It is no surprise that a courageous journalist for the San Jose Mercury-News should find that the CIA imported drugs and directed those shipments toward poor inner-city neighborhoods. It corresponds nicely with what I just described. --Gary Sudborough