FIGHT DRUGS, NOT TRADE

Here's something for protesters at the Quebec summit to speak out against:
the growing trafficking of drugs and its corrosive effects on societies.
The threat to democracy posed by drugs is far more serious than any
conceivable harm that might come from free trade.

As summit documents point out, the hemispheric drug trade has grown into a
multibillion-dollar enterprise that endangers the health and safety of
millions of people. It imposes enormous costs on societies. For example,
taxes must rise to finance police surveillance, drug prosecutions, the
penal system and drug-treatment programs.

Drug trafficking distorts economies by impeding economic development. In
some countries, it inflates currency values and makes it more expensive for
legal businesses to import products. Money laundering undermines the proper
functioning of the banking system.

Even worse is the corruption of the political and judicial systems caused
by well-financed drug-traffickers who purchase their influence.

The latest trend is the use of drug trafficking to finance rebel
paramilitary groups such as those in Colombia. Indeed, Colombia's
neighbours are increasingly concerned about a spillover of guerrilla
activity and drug production across their borders.

By all accounts, the hemispheric drug problem is getting worse. Consumption
of cocaine has declined in the United States but the number of chronic
users is still large, an estimated 3.6 million. On the other hand, heroin
consumption in the United States is growing, approaching one million users.

While coca cultivation has fallen in Bolivia and Peru, it has been
displaced to Colombia, where the area under cultivation has grown. Poppy
farming is also increasing. It's now estimated Colombia supplies about 75
per cent of the heroin on the U.S. East Coast and 80 per cent of the
cocaine used across the United States. Mexico remains a major source of
drug exports; small nations in the Caribbean are also falling prey to the
lure of drug production.

At the Quebec summit, the 34 national leaders are expected to endorse a
drug strategy for the hemisphere known as the Multilateral Evaluation
Mechanism. It's being hailed as a co-operative effort by member nations to
police themselves and to be held accountable for their actions.

It's supposed to be an alternative to the blunt instrument of U.S.
decertification. During the 1990s, Washington began the annual process of
certifying whether countries were doing enough to combat drugs. Those that
weren't got hit with a loss of aid and other sanctions. Needless to say,
some countries didn't appreciate the attention.

But, ugly as it might be, certification does produce results. Every year,
around the period of certification, countries start to pass laws, eradicate
crops and round up drug kingpins. This may look cosmetic but it does
represent progress. And Washington isn't about to give it up.

Clearly, more must be done. The test of the MEM is whether it will be a
credible, transparent method of reporting on the drug situation or whether
countries will attempt to whitewash their record. Progress on the drug
front will require a combination of policies: alternative development, crop
eradication, crop substitution, drug interdiction, criminal-justice reform,
education campaigns and tougher approaches to money laundering. It worked
in Bolivia and Peru and it can work elsewhere.

Legalizing drugs isn't the answer. Tougher action is.