Indira Lakshmanan writes about how drug traffickers have corrupted the Columbian military to the point that they effectively have become an arm of the drug lords. An episode in which soldiers assassinated a US-trained anti-nartocits police squad underscores how bad it has become.

A Globe op-ed considers the damage drugs do at the other end of the chain, to the individual and those around them. The writer, Bill Fried, makes the point that if addicts are subsidized, the damage that they do to society will be minimized.

It's interesting to view the problem from both perspectives. Obviously many of the current approaches in the 'war on drugs' are simply not working. But I don't think Fried's idea would fly, politically or morally, with most people. And I don't have a clue about what to do in Columbia.