HAITI'S DRUG PROBLEM

For the first time in years, there is good news for the U.S. from Haiti.
But there's bad news for a country that can ill afford it. Once a major,
and continually expanding, beachhead for U.S.-bound cocaine from the
Colombian cartels, Haiti has been the scene of countless major drug seizures.

Both the U.S. State Department, in its report on narcotics, and the General
Accounting Office, which has produced a gloomy survey of U.S. aid to the
poorest country in the Caribbean, record a drop in drug shipments through
Haiti. But the State Department noted that none of "this (decrease) is
attributable to the efforts of the Haitian government. The largest factor
may be the difficulties traffickers experienced in moving drugs through
Haiti because of poor infrastructure, or the seizure of drugs by rival
traffickers or other criminals."

The State Department's dry-as-dust account of the declining flow of drugs
to American streets via Haiti grabs attention with this report: "Cocaine is
widely known as manna from heaven throughout Haiti, as it has become a
source of income for entire towns."

In town after town near the coast in Haiti, cargo planes carrying tons of
cocaine have been surrounded by a mass of humanity when they have landed on
clandestine runways while launches bringing drugs from ships at sea have
been met on the beaches by crowds of townspeople.

A Los Angles Times reporter found that one such town, Grand-Goave, was
changed forever when the citizenry seized more than 8,000 pounds of cocaine
that landed on a local beach. It made some people millionaires overnight,
but in the words of one of its citizens: "It corrupted the town at its most
basic level. And today, the biggest impact of all this cocaine is a new
sense of insecurity." Before, it was "a God-fearing town where petty crime
has been minimal and major crimes such as murder largely motivated by
politics."

The drugs brought crime, shootings, prostitution - and drug addiction.

It is only now, with no more drug shipments coming their way, that the
townspeople have learned that cocaine is not "manna from heaven" but a
curse from hell. And the State Department notes that the traffickers
haven't been put out of business.

Despite the populist drug seizures, Haiti must still be regarded as a major
transshipment point for South American narcotics.