Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 10, 1994                   TAG: 9412300070
SECTION: EDITORIALS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

DRUG WAR'S COST AND LOSSES STILL MOUNTING

Now, a new drug problem has been added - increased heroin use!

There are now 11 countries exporting heroin to the United States. Lee Brown, U.S. federal drug czar, states: ``No country has the resources to meet the challenge alone.'' The heroin fight is plagued by massive foreign corruption.

We haven't stopped the importation of cocaine from South America. It's an uphill battle.

Domestic heroin use is on the rise. Estimates are that $4 billion to $10 billion is the current cost. Heroin-related emergency room visits rose 44 percent in the first half of 1993.

Heroin-interdiction efforts by the United States receive only 10 percent of our government's international drug budget.

The heroin trade is dominated by Southeast Asian countries. However, Pakistan and Afghanistan are entering the market. (U.S. officials have met with Pakistan's prime minister about this problem.)

What do our representatives in Washington intend to do about this drug problem? As of now, we're losing this war and billions of dollars in the process.

JACK BYRD

HARDY

Salem parade not in the spirit

MY FAMILY and I went to Salem's annual (Christmas?) parade on Dec. 2, and if it wasn't for the very small number of Christmas or Christian theme displays, it could have very easily been mistaken for a Fourth of July parade.

It consisted mostly of fire-fighting equipment, and plain old vehicles holding waving people with blank faces.

I watched the random throwing of goodies at the crowd's feet (mostly by blank-faced people), and kids of all sizes and ages fighting for a piece of gum, etc. I watched as a plain old truck went by and another blank face threw pencils, and the fight was on.

I watched as a polite young woman, who was holding a small child, stooped down to pick up a pencil and was knocked over by larger kids as they tried to get that pencil. When she got up, her pants were torn and her knees were bleeding.

I saw some parade people come down the street and actually hand out goodies. This is fine, but I feel the throwing of stuff at parade watchers will one day result in injury to someone.

I'd like to see in the future real Christmas displays, real Christmas music and not marching band stuff. And prohibit the throwing of stuff at the crowd.

JERRY SEIDMAN

SALEM

The crimes of the CIA

ON DEC. 1, ex-CIA agent Philip Agee spoke from the heart in uncovering the lies of the Central Intelligence Agency. He spoke to a crowd of 150 at Randolph-Macon Women's College. Agee urged everyone to develop a social conscience, to learn how rotten the CIA really is. He said it only serves a very few people in the United States, such as big manufacturing and agricultural corporations, and is costing taxpayers $30 billion a year.

He detailed the CIA's origins, and emphasized that collection and analysis of foreign intelligence as a means to prevent war are legitimate and necessary. But using the CIA for almost 50 years to undermine democratic institutions, to incite and wage paramilitary warfare, to establish military dictatorships, and to support death squads is, he said, criminal and immoral.

He spoke from personal experience, of eight years with the CIA in Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico and Cuba. Participation in these activities became so abhorrent to him that he had to quit to save his sense of decency. His resignation invited a lifetime of revenge and persecution by the U.S. government.

Agee concentrated on the U.S./CIA covert actions in Cuba, which began in 1898 with McKinley's decision to make Cuba a neo-colony. The United States already controlled Cuba's best lands. In 1956, the CIA set up a political police force. However, in 1958, Castro meted out justice to the murderous perpetrators, many of whom were CIA. Efforts to save CIA leaders by the United States were denied by Castro, which led to a declaration of war against Cuba by the CIA and endorsed by Dwight Eisenhower.

In 1959, Castro began land reform, which incensed big U.S. landowners. In March 1960, Eisenhower signed off on the assassination of Castro. History is clear on what's happened since. But in 1989, the noose around Cuba was again tightened: no food, no fuel, no U.S. travel, no pharmaceuticals - a direct assault on children's health in particular. As Agee put it: ``The U.S. is using hunger as a weapon. It is a crime against humanity.''

BOB DELLAVALLE-RAUTH

HUDDLESTON

Serving tobacco and gun interests

REGARDING Alan Sorensen's Dec. 4 column, ``Do Boucher, Payne represent some constituents too well?'':

I'd like to have seen you expand the column to include comments on the value accrued to the tobacco and gun interests as a result of U.S. Reps. L.F. Payne's and Rick Boucher's votes through the years on various tobacco and gun-related bills, contrasted with their single vote each year to organize the House.

GEORGE BEAMER

CHRISTIANSBURG