LAWMAKERS RECONSIDER DRUG STATUTE

WASHINGTON (AP) - A law that grades countries on their efforts to combat
drug trafficking - a statute long criticized by Mexico and other nations -
would be altered substantially by a Democratic proposal supported by
Republicans.

Under the new plan, foreign nations, which now can lose U.S. aid if they
are found not to be "fully cooperating with the United States" in their
anti-drug efforts, would be judged instead on adherence to international
treaties or other commitments.

The proposal drew no opposition during a morning meeting of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, where Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and other
Republicans supported the measure drawn up largely by Sen. Christopher
Dodd, D-Conn. However, a vote was delayed for lack of a quorum.

The proposal reserves the tools that the Bush administration needs to
ensure that countries are cooperating with anti-drug efforts "while
removing the more offensive unilateral report card features that have been
a source of friction between Mexico and the United States and other
countries as well," Dodd said.

The existing certification program has been denounced in America by those
who consider it counterproductive and by foreign countries embarrassed by
their grades and annoyed at being judged by the world's biggest drug
consuming-nation.

"Certification is more than an affront to Mexico and to other countries. It
is a sham that should be denounced and canceled," Mexican President Vicente
Fox said last year. President Bush (news - web sites) has endorsed setting
aside that process.

The measure, offered as a three-year trial, would, among other things:

- -Eliminate the requirement that nations be "fully cooperating with the
United States" to receive certification and foreign aid. That condition
would be replaced by a requirement that the president single out the worst
offenders among major drug-transit and drug-producing countries and
designate which have "failed demonstrably ... to make substantial efforts"
to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements and take other
anti-drug steps.

- -Shift the premise from one of guilty until proven innocent to innocent
until proven guilty.

- -Keep leverage over drug-producing and drug-transiting countries by
continuing to make the worst offenders ineligible for U.S. aid unless the
president waives the prohibition because of national interest concerns.