From today's Los Angeles Times comes welcome news, that the military is easing up on its War on Drugs.

"Citing the need to redirect resources to the war on terrorism, the Pentagon has quietly decided to scale back its effort to combat international drug trafficking, a central element of the national "war on drugs" for 14 years."

The program now costs $1 billion a year. Plans are not final on how to make the cuts but under discussion are a reduction in the use of special ops forces on counter-narcotics missions and a scaling back on using the military to train anti-drug police and soldiers here and overseas. Also on the drawing board is making the intelligence-gathering equipment used in drug investigations available for use in the fight against terrorism.

The Pentagon is concerned that there will be congressional opposition to scaling down the military's involvement in the drug war. Apparently, its very popular on the Hill. We couldn't figure out why until we read further down in the article:

"Congress ordered a reluctant Pentagon to enter the drug war in 1988, when surging cocaine traffic from South America sparked a sense of crisis in the U.S. and set off calls for stronger measures to fight drugs."

Administration officials, including Rumsfeld have been saying for some time that the military is better used elswhere and that civilian agencies could better work on drug issues. Pentagon counter-drug chief Andre Hollis said the program has expanded to 179 separate subprograms, a number he calls "surreal."

As for how much money is spent and where, here's what the Times says:

"The Pentagon spent about $1 billion on drug-related operations in fiscal 2002, out of a total federal counter-narcotics outlay of $19 billion. The Pentagon has a bigger anti-drug budget than the Coast Guard, Customs Service or the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and accounts for a significant share of federal money spent to fight drugs abroad."

"In its drug interdiction role, the military acts as the lead U.S. agency for gathering intelligence on drug trafficking, and uses an array of aircraft, ships, radar and other eavesdropping tools."

While the military cannot engage directly in drug raids, its troops provide technical assistance with communications and intelligence.

"Highly skilled special operations troops and other military personnel also train foreign police and soldiers, as well as U.S. law enforcement personnel. They teach everything from basic infantry skills to languages, first aid, boat handling, swimming and horsemanship."

Most of the Pentagon's activities are in the Andes, Central America and the Caribbean, but they are active in Mexico and Southeast Asia as well, particularly in Thailand.

We think it is a good idea for the Pentagon to scale back and ultimately get out of the drug war. It's a good time to write your elected officials in Congress and let them know you approve of the reductions. Maybe if Congress knows their constituents are in favor of the Pentagon redirecting its considerable assets to the War on Terror, they will be more likely to go along without a big fuss.