NEUTRON SCANNER SET TO ZAP ILLEGAL DRUGS

WASHINGTON - Next year at this time, the U.S. Customs Service may be able
to use a new scanning machine that uses neutrons to help agents identity
cocaine and other drugs inside trucks and other cargo holds.

This scanning device, a new, improved version of the large X-ray machines
customs agents use now, will be among new technologies presented at a
government-sponsored conference on anti-drug tools in San Diego this week.

Al Brandenstein, chief scientist of the White House Drug Policy Office,
said he expected the three-day conference to be "very, very successful."
The neutron scanner should be ready for use within one year, he said.

The plethora of new technologies developed by or for the government to help
fight drug addition and trafficking should defuse "the myth that nothing
works in the so-called war against drugs," Brandenstein said.

Over 400 scientists, law enforcement representatives and companies
designing and developing such technology are due to attend the conference.

On display will be brain scanners that show the impact of using drugs,
chemicals that make methamphetamine inert, ground and air telephone
intercepts, and miniature cameras, as well as so-called mini-busters used
by customs agents and police officers to find drugs being smuggled inside
tires and other closed spaces.

Some six years ago, one such device - which works by showing changes in the
density inside a vehicle - helped the U.S. Customers Service seize $29
million worth of black tar heroin, which was concealed inside a set of
truck tires.

Now, more than 2,500 state and local police departments use the devices
during traffic stops and other investigations, Brandenstein told Reuters.

Federal agencies are "aggressively hunting for powerful, fresh concepts in
both law enforcement and medicime that we can fund in hopes of making
strongnew strides against addiction and the crime associated with drug
trafficking," Brandenstein said in a statement.