MANY COLOMBIANS BACK DECRIMINALIZATION, BUT U.S. PRESSES FIGHT

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - Long dismissed as the stuff of dope smokers' fantasies,
the idea of decriminalizing the production and use of drugs is winning
support across Colombia, prompted in part by a U.S.-backed attack on the
nation's illicit drug crops.

The movement, favoring a reduction or elimination of criminal penalties for
people involved in the drug trade, is rapidly gaining support from
mainstream opinion-makers and high-powered Colombian politicians, although
few are willing to predict whether it will produce any marked change in the
war on drugs.

"The problem is that the law of the marketplace is overtaking the law of
the state," former President Ernesto Samper said in an interview. "We have
to ask, is legalization a way out of this?

"We cannot continue to fight this war alone. If the consuming nations do
nothing to curb demand, to control money-laundering, to halt the flow of
chemicals that supply the drug-production labs, then in a few short years,
the world is going to see legalization as the answer."

A bipartisan group of legislators introduced bills in Colombia's congress
this month on the themes of legalization and decriminalization. The
legislators said part of their motivation is the angry public reaction in
Colombia to an intensified herbicide-spraying campaign, funded by the
United States, to eradicate hundreds of thousands of acres of drug crops.

U.S. officials have made clear that they oppose any move to decriminalize
drug production. The legislation, however, coincides with a decision by the
Bush administration to review its current approach to combating drugs.

A U.S. delegation headed by Marc Grossman, undersecretary of state for
political affairs, will arrive Wednesday in Bogotá to begin a review of the
anti-drug program known as Plan Colombia. Secretary of State Colin Powell
is expected to visit Colombia on Sept. 11.

The keystone of U.S. support for Plan Colombia is a 10-month-old campaign
of aerial eradication aimed at the coca and opium crops that are the source
of nearly all the cocaine and heroin sold in the United States.

Colombian politicians are increasingly concerned about the potential
environmental, economic and social effects that the eradication campaign is
having.

In addition, the U.S.-backed Colombian military is locked in a heavy
offensive against the nation's largest guerrilla group, which both
governments accuse of supporting and profiting from the drug trade. The
guerrilla leaders advocate legalization of drug use.

Under Colombian law, individuals legally can possess a "personal dosage" of
cocaine, hashish and marijuana. Some legislators want to expand the law to
halt the criminal prosecution of peasant farmers who cultivate less than
seven acres of coca and opium plants.

"We are now a full year into Plan Colombia, and we can see the results:
Peasant farmers are wiped out economically, people are being displaced,
suffering is on the increase," said Sen. Rafael Orduz, a sponsor of one
bill that would remove criminal penalties for small landholders involved in
illicit-crop production.

"Just because we support decriminalization does not mean we support
guerrillas or drug traffickers. We are tired of all of them. We want to get
rid of them," he added. "Attacking our poorest peasant farmers is not the
solution. ... The idea should not be to treat them as criminals, because
they are not. All they are trying to do is survive."

Sen. Viviane Morales of the opposition Liberal Party has introduced a
separate bill to legalize the production, distribution and consumption of
recreational drugs and place the industry under government supervision.
Political analysts give the bill little chance of success, but they say Ms.
Morales clearly has sparked a serious debate over the issue.

"Colombia needs a national consensus to turn this theme into a diplomatic
initiative," said Carlos Holguín Sardi, leader of President Andrés
Pastrana's Conservative Party. "We must start the ball rolling so that the
international community can reach formulas for legalization as quickly as
possible."

Enrique Santos Calderón, publisher of Colombia's largest daily newspaper,
El Tiempo, also has joined the call for decriminalization.

"I believe the U.S. strategy to combat drugs is wrong-headed and
inefficient. Alternate legalization and decriminalization tactics should be
considered because the 'war against drugs' strategies have failed
miserably," he wrote in a Los Angeles Times commentary in March.

U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson has said she opposes any such action
"because I believe it could cause many problems for the international
community." However, she acknowledged recently that the amount of acreage
under illicit cultivation in Colombia has grown despite the eradication effort.

Barry McCaffrey, former White House director of national drug control
policy, has lashed out against legalization proponents on several
occasions, particularly when hundreds of prominent business and political
leaders worldwide, led by billionaire businessman George Soros, published
an open letter in 1998 calling for an international review of the drug war.

"What is the result? U.N. agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by
the illegal drug industry at $400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly 8
percent of total international trade," the letter said. "This industry has
empowered organized criminals, corrupted governments at all levels, eroded
internal security, stimulated violence, and distorted both economic markets
and moral values. These are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of
decades of failed and futile drug war policies."

Mr. McCaffrey responded angrily: "Through a slick misinformation campaign,
these individuals perpetuate a fraud on the American people, a fraud so
devious that even some of the nation's most respectable newspapers and
sophisticated media are capable of echoing their falsehoods," he said in
congressional testimony.

Nevertheless, the international debate has intensified. This month, The
Economist magazine in Britain published a long report, "The Case for
Legalising Drugs." The magazine cited Prohibition in the United States,
which banned the production and sale of alcohol from 1920 to 1933, as an
example of how criminal punishment does not eliminate the use of
psychotropic substances but does tend to strengthen criminal trafficking
organizations.

Last month, Sir Keith Morris, who served as British ambassador to Colombia
from 1990 to 1994, called for his nation to legalize drug consumption,
declaring that the war on drugs "unwinnable, costly and counterproductive."

In Colombia, proponents of decriminalizing s for drug production say their
biggest fear is the international isolation that would likely follow any
such move.

When Mr. Samper was president, from 1994 to 1998, they note, the United
States led a movement to punish Colombia diplomatically because of Mr.
Samper's alleged links to drug cartels. His presidential campaign accepted
$6 million from leaders of the Cali drug cartel, although Mr. Samper said
he had been unaware of the source of the donation.

Colombians are wary of taking any radical political action that could cause
another international backlash unless other nations do likewise.

"We are all, at the same time, victims as well as perpetrators of this
problem," said Guillermo Gaviria, governor of the northern province of
Antioquia.

"All we're asking is that the international community look at this
situation seriously and approach it with an attitude of co-responsibility.

"We've been fighting this drug war for almost 40 years now, and all the
formulas for attacking the producers and traffickers have not produced the
results we sought," he said. "We have not reduced the flow of drugs. We
have not reduced the amount of land under illicit cultivation. And we
certainly have not reduced the amount of suffering our country is experiencing."