DRUG-USE ANALYSIS MAY EASE TENSIONS

WASHINGTON -- Western Hemisphere nations this week will judge their own
strengths and weaknesses in fighting drugs under an Organization of
American States analysis that some hope eventually could ease a source of
tensions in U.S.-Mexican relations.

Thirty-four experts will present an OAS commission with the results of the
organization's first country-by-country drug study of the Americas, known
as the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism, or MEM.

Some U.S. and Latin American officials hope the MEM eventually will replace
the U.S. drug certification system, under which this country annually
judges other nations on their cooperation in fighting drugs. Those seen as
not doing enough could face sanctions.

The process has infuriated Mexico and other nations, who view it as
condescending, an assault on their sovereignty and hypocritical,
considering that the United States is the leading consumer of illegal drugs.

"If the MEM gets the credibility that we think it will, it will weaken the
(need for) the unilateral certification," said Claude Heller, the Mexican
ambassador to the OAS.

Among the main U.S. advocates of MEM is Barry McCaffrey, head of the White
House drug policy office.

"It will become increasingly apparent to the most thoughtful policy people
in the administration of the hemisphere that our national interests are
better served by this evaluation mechanism than by the former system of a
series of binational confrontations," McCaffrey said.

But the certification process could not be changed without Congress'
approval, and some lawmakers are skeptical about the multilateral system.

"I welcome any effort to make countries, including the United States, take
the need for a counter-drug policy seriously, but I'm concerned about the
Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism because it looks like it could be a
gimmick to water down accountability, and nobody needs that," said Sen.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Caucus on International
Narcotics Control.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said certification is merely a form of assuring
that beneficiaries of U.S. support are helping to fight drugs.

"Would I let an international organization or another state decide whether
a country should get financial aid, trade benefits or international
assistance from the United States? When you think about it, the idea is
almost farcical. No way," said Mica, chairman of the House Government
Reform subcommittee on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources.

Officially, the MEM system is unrelated to certification. At a 1998 summit,
hemispheric leaders asked the OAS to create a system for judging progress
on a wide range of drug issues and to improve cooperation.

The OAS set up a panel of experts -- one from each active member state --
to examine data provided by the countries. Those experts have prepared a
draft report for each country, plus a hemispheric report, that will be
presented to the OAS's Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission.

The commission will spend the coming week reviewing and possibly modifying
the reports. The hemispheric report likely will be released Friday;
individual country reports aren't expected to be released until January.
All the reports will be submitted to hemispheric leaders at their next
summit April 20-22 in Quebec, Canada.