MEXICO'S NEW DRUG POLICY FOCUSES ON SMALL PICTURE

President Touts Gains Against Cartels But Declares Substance Abuse A
Destructive Problem.

MEXICO CITY -- Boasting success in fighting "big fish" drug traffickers and
high-level government corruption, President Vicente Fox is now targeting
small-time dealers in order to combat drug consumption in Mexico, a problem
that officials say is spiraling out of control.

In an address Monday unveiling his anti-drug program and in his weekly
radio address Saturday, Fox said he would soon ask Mexico's Congress to
pass laws allowing municipal and state police to arrest drug dealers, a
power that currently resides only with federal law enforcement officials.

Mexican anti-drug efforts have focused on breaking up international drug
trafficking rings, including the Arellano Felix cartel of Tijuana and the
Carrillo Fuentes gang of Ciudad Juarez. Citing 40 arrests of cartel leaders
since he took office two years ago, Fox pronounced Mexico's three biggest
gangs "dismantled."

But recent studies indicate that consumption among Mexicans of cocaine,
heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines is on the rise, a trend that Fox
said is threatening the social fabric by tearing apart families and fueling
a wave of kidnappings, murders and robberies.

"This is a war we have to fight on all fronts, and it's not enough to
attack the supply. We have to keep demand from growing," Fox said Monday at
a gathering that included federal legislators and several of his Cabinet
members. "Together, the federal government, the states and the cities will
raise a wall to stop crime."

The initiative comes as the Fox administration as a whole is pointing to
successes in its fight against drugs and corruption, including the arrest
of trafficker Benjamin Arellano Felix in March and the confiscation of
thousands of tons of marijuana, cocaine and heroin in recent months.

Investigators arrested 22 federal officials last month for allegedly
feeding law enforcement information to drug mafias. Also in October, the
army disbanded its 65th Battalion in Sinaloa state. Instead of combating
the drug trade, the unit was helping traffickers transport drugs.

On Friday, a military tribunal convicted two army generals, Francisco
Quiros Hermosillo and Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, of helping the Juarez
cartel transport drugs to the U.S.-Mexican border.

Although the amount of drugs that Mexico has confiscated since Fox took
office is roughly equal to seizures of recent years, UC San Diego professor
Peter H. Smith believes it may represent a greater percentage of the
overall flow. Drug shipments from Mexico are probably down over the last
year or two, with much of it now diverted through the Caribbean, he said.

"With the persistence of drug demand in the United States, there are real
limits to what authorities in drug-producing and in-transit countries can
do, other than raise the cost of doing business," Smith said. "But within
the constraints that Mexico faces, Fox is probably doing as well as we
could possibly hope for."

Although he said he doubts that Fox's plan to cut consumption and
production will work, Jorge Chabat, a professor at Mexico City's Center for
Economic Research and Teaching, gave the president credit for the arrests
of top traffickers.

"It certainly improves Mexico's image vis-a-vis the United States, and
that's not minor," he said.