DRUG DEMAND FUELS WAR

Cartels Driven By Desire For Big Payoff

When she was 10 years old, Patricia Montejano sat in a truck outside
a stash house in Kansas waiting for a close relative. Although she
didn't know exactly what was going on, she could sense the tension in
the air.

She was in the company of a drug trafficker who was dropping a load
of marijuana.

Montejano said she and her sisters always went along for the ride
from JuA!rez to points throughout the United States because law
enforcement officials were less likely to suspect an adult with children.

"It was very dangerous," said Montejano, now 26. "Things would clear
up, but then ... would just go back and do it again."

Montejano was unknowingly part of a network of Mexican drug cartels
that officials say is becoming a powerful supplier of illegal drugs
in the United States.

And marijuana is the lynchpin, accounting for more than $8.5 billion
in revenue for Mexican drug trafficking organizations in 2005,
according to the most recent figures available from the Bush
administration's Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Next in line, are cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. Together, they
account for slightly more than $5.3 billion each year.

Mexican officials point out that the demand for drugs in the U.S. is
driving cartel activity in most cases. And U.S. officials are talking
tough about addicts and recreational users who spend their money on
the illegal drugs.

"The largest single source of their revenue is marijuana," said John
P. Walters, Office of National Drug Control Policy director. "These
killers (cartel bosses) pay assassins with dollars from marijuana
users in the United States and it needs to stop.

"It's not a victimless activity. It's blood money. And every time
somebody buys a joint, they need to remember they're contributing to
the assassination and murder in Mexico."

Meanwhile, U.S. officials are focused on disrupting cartel
activities.

Walters and others tout data showing recent decreases in the use of
methamphetamine, cocaine and, among teens, marijuana. They, in part,
attribute those trends to drug seizures and restrictions on the
chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine.

In fiscal year 2008, the nation will spend $3.2 billion on drug
interdiction and the administration has requested an increase to $3.8
billion for fiscal 2009. President Bush also has asked Congress to
approve $1.4 billion, most of it for Mexico, to bolster that
nation's war on drugs.

"We have (had) unprecedented levels of success this year with respect
to interdiction," said Michael Braun, Drug Enforcement Administration
chief of operations. "Much of that success should go to Mexico
President CalderA3n and his administration's strategy of taking on
these very vicious and ruthless cartels nose-to-nose, head-to-head
and not backing down."

Cartels move north

The growing violence in JuA!rez is one indication of the huge payoff
waiting for the cartel that can control this portion of the Southwest
border. Mexican cartels are establishing dominance in nearly every
aspect of the nation's illegal drug trade, according to a recent
U.S. Department of Justice report.

"Mexican (drug trafficking organizations) -- the principal smugglers
and distributors of illicit drugs in the United States -- are
exerting more control over illicit drug trafficking throughout the
nation," according to the National Drug Threat Assessment -- 2008,
released late last year.

The assessment also states that Colombian organizations are relying
more on Mexican cartels to smuggle South American heroin into the
U.S., "enabling Mexican (organizations) to control the flow of both
Mexican and, increasingly, South American heroin into U.S. drug markets."

But the Mexican cartels are not satisfied simply moving someone
else's product.

Expanded opium poppy cultivation and decreased eradication in Mexico
also could increase the Mexican cartels' profile in heroin sales, the
report states, adding that increasing purity of Mexican heroin might
create a greater demand for the product.

The report also states that, despite success against the Colombian
cartels, cocaine production is expected to remain stable and that
Mexican cartels will be the "dominant distributors," with most of it
flowing in through Texas.

Another opportunity for the Mexican cartels has been created by the
success of law enforcement efforts to shut down methamphetamine labs
in the U.S. The Mexican cartels have been setting up labs in northern
Mexico, according to the assessment, and are now "the primary source
of methamphetamine in U.S. drug markets."

Mexican cartels, and to a lesser degree Asian cartels, increasingly
are sending members to grow marijuana in the United States, sometimes
setting booby traps and posting armed guards on public lands.

As marijuana eradication efforts in the U.S. have increased, the
cartels have turned to equipping residential homes with hydroponics
and special lighting systems to grow marijuana. The indoor pot also
is typically more potent because of the ability to control growing
conditions.

However, "most of the marijuana available in the United States is
lower-potency, commercial-grade marijuana produced in Mexico," the
report states.

The cartels typically employ "low-level couriers" to smuggle cocaine,
marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin on overland routes across the
Southwest border, the report states.

As the cartels evolve, so do the counter-drug agencies'
tactics.

"We're always changing our strategies," Braun said. "And we've
learned over the years that when we change our strategies, we cause
traffickers to change their behavior. Every time we cause them to
change their behavior, they become more vulnerable and our successes
begin to rise."

An alternate solution proposed by some critics of the drug war is to
legalize drugs -- marijuana in particular. They say the demand for
the illegal supply would drop dramatically. The drug could be
regulated to keep it out of the hands of youth, they say, and taxed
to fund prevention and treatment.

The country's top counter-drug officials sneer at the
idea.

"It's a silly argument put forth by people who have a hidden agenda
to legalize drugs," said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the Office
of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C. "It's not a
responsible health policy to make marijuana more available in society."

Seeking help

After three or four years of transporting drugs for the cartels,
Montejano said her relative was busted in a sting operation and
sentenced to prison. After being released, the person sought help and
has been clean for six years, Montejano said.

But Montejano descended into drug and alcohol addiction. Although her
main problem was alcohol, she says she used cocaine to increase her
stamina during drinking binges.

As long as she had a dealer, getting the drug was easy, she said.
When the dealer disappeared she would go searching for a new connection.

Then, after three drunk-driving convictions, the loss of her license,
and the threat of a jail sentence, which would have separated her
from her daughter, she was given an option -- drug court, which
requires treatment.

Administration officials point to some 2,000 drug courts for
nonviolent offenders as a way to reduce demand. Funding random
drug-testing programs at high schools is another administration goal.

The tab -- $3.5 billion a year -- about equals the money spent on
interdiction, officials said.

"We're treating more people (and) we're seeing declines in drug use,
which is all to the good, and we want to accelerate those," Walters
said. "We get more progress by reducing supply and demand together."

However, there is a "treatment gap," Lemaitre said, which means more
people are seeking treatment than can be accommodated in the programs.

Although treatment is not a quick fix, drug courts provide a way for
some offenders to stay out of jail. That means they can become, or
remain, gainfully employed.

Montejano entered drug court in 2004. At first, she said, she was
rebellious and refused to comply with the program's rules. When she
violated the rules, she went to jail for a day or two. And, each
time, she had to begin the 18-month program over.

Clean for a year and three months, she now counsels people who are
facing foreclosure on their homes and plans to become a social worker
focusing on drug and alcohol counseling.

Montejano said she agrees with Walters' contention that people
support cartels by buying illegal drugs. But her case might shine a
light on one way to reduce demand in the U.S. -- expanding treatment
for addictive behavior.

"I want to help exactly the way I was helped," Montejano said.