Castleton Spartan

Issue date: 4/11/07 Section: News

Sanho Tree

The photo on the screen showed a small, barely clothed man, face hidden by a large straw farmer's hat, hunched over with his arms held out, elbows bent, showing off the bright-red splotchy rash that covered them.

As the next slide was shown (this one of a woman with the same rash) the speaker, Sanho Tree, stood beside the podium telling the audience that the rash was caused by a chemical herbicide that was dropped by U.S. helicopters in countries like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia in an attempt to eradicate plots of coca leaves, the plant used to make cocaine.

Tree, a Fellow and director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., then cycled through more pictures of destroyed farms and ailing farmers during his presentation at Herrick Auditorium.

The presentation, put on by the History department and titled "Addicted to Failure", outlined the many problems that Tree and the institute have with America's drug policies, policies that Tree said are far from suited to the problem. With close to $40 billion a year being spent on combating an epidemic that shows no signs of stopping, people are continuing to question just how well the country's current policies are working.

"The war on drugs has been a failure," said Tree, speaking to a full-capacity crowd, "Many of you, though you might not know it, are probably one phone call away from getting what you want. Two at the most."

Carrie Waara, a history professor who required her Roots: History Behind the Headlines class to attend the presentation, thought the talk was a good one for her students.

"I was really impressed with how much information Sanho had at his fingertips. He answered every question with a wealth of understanding, and showed how research can support compelling and significant work," she said.

Like many "solutions" used in the war on drugs, the spraying of coca leaves causes more problems than it solves.

The widespread spraying (the U.S.'s biggest plan to halt the production of cocaine) is a plan far too faulty to work and one that routinely hits rural farmers, not drug smugglers, the hardest. Young people, seeing what the U.S. planes are doing to their countrymen and the loss of hope they cause, either become drug traffickers/growers themselves, or go to the jungles to join the guerilla fighters battling against the Colombian government.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools