U.S., COLOMBIA TO MEET ON DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will meet today
with Colombian President Andres Pastrana to discuss the Clinton
administration's ambitious plan to help Colombia defeat narcotics traders
and revitalize its economy.

Albright was flying to the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena, the first
leg of a three-day Latin America trip that also will take her to Panama and
Mexico.

The Cartagena meeting will take place almost exactly 10 years after then
President George Bush joined with the presidents of Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru in the same city to devise strategies for stepping up the drug war.

Since that meeting, the defeats in the drug war appear to have outstripped
the gains. As an example, coca production in Colombia increased to an
estimated 81,400 tons in 1998 compared with 33,900 tons in 1989. The cocaine
glut means a decline in prices -- 55 percent since 1981.

The number of hard core drug addicts in the United States has held steady
and teen drug use is up sharply since 1992, although the percentages have
fallen slightly over the past two years, according to official figures.

The administration's two-year, $1.6 billion aid package will provide
training for special counternarcotics battalions and 30 Blackhawk and 33
Huey helicopters for counterdrug activities. Funds also will be used for
radar, aircraft and airfield upgrades, and improved intelligence gathering.

Critics of U.S. policy abound.

"The drug war is futile," says Tim Lynch of the libertarian Cato Institute.
"Progress is not being made and we need to look at alternatives, including
legalization."

Lynch says U.S. territory is simply too vast to prevent illicit drugs from
entering the country, particularly in view of the increasingly high-tech
devices used by drug kingpins. To confuse U.S. law enforcement, drug cartels
sometimes resort to fake transactions, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Use of encryption devices also impairs antidrug efforts.

John Walsh of Drug Strategies, a private group, says $26 billion has been
spent over the past 20 years on interdiction and international supply
control programs.

"By key measures with which we can gauge drug availability, they are all
going in the wrong direction," Walsh says, arguing that the answer is to
halt interdiction and eradication efforts and instead focus on treatment of
drug users.

"We know chapter and verse that treatment works to reduce drug use and
reduce crime related to drug use," he says. The problem, he says, is that
treatment programs are underfunded.

Taking aim at the planned increase in military assistance for Colombia
counternarcotics efforts, the liberal Washington Office on Latin America
says the proposal threatens to implicate the United States in Colombia's
civil war.

But the plan appears to have substantial congressional support, especially
among Republican lawmakers. The proposal is in line with a $1.6 billion
program outlined last fall by three GOP senators: Paul Coverdell of Georgia,
Mike DeWine of Ohio and Charles Grassley of Iowa.

Coverdell says the administration proposal "is good news for Colombia and
good news for our nation's ability to stem the flow of illegal drugs across
our borders."