DRUG CZAR LOOKS BACK ON HIS WAR

WASHINGTON -- Barry McCaffrey says his experience at West Point did nothing
to prepare him for the misery and human destruction that he's seen in his
five years as the nation's anti-drug chief.

"I never knew anybody who used cocaine or marijuana," he said. That goes
for his high school and college days, too.

With his drug policy under fire from Republicans, President Clinton
recruited McCaffrey as his drug-war point man 10 months before the 1996
election. At the time, McCaffrey was the youngest four-star general, and he
retired from the Army to take the job.

"I've seen more misery in this job, more human destruction, than I did in
combat," said McCaffrey, who saw fighting in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.

"There are 5 million chronically addicted Americans," he said. "Each year,
probably on the order of 52,000 die from some cause related to drug abuse."

After McCaffrey's appointment, Congress promptly increased the drug-control
budget. The result, McCaffrey says, was a 21 percent drop in narcotics use
by 12- to 17-year-olds.

"None of this would have happened without a 55 percent increase in
drug-prevention education funding," he said.

Statistics showing forward movement in the drug war -- some predating his
arrival -- roll off McCaffrey's tongue.

"Casual cocaine use down by 70 percent in a decade," he said. "Overall drug
use down by 50 percent, drug-related murders down by 50 percent."

The federal government reported earlier this month that teenage drug use
held steady in 2000, the fourth straight year it has either fallen or
stayed the same.

Smoking dropped significantly, but use of the club drug ecstasy among
eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders climbed for the second year in a row.

The report also found the number of high school seniors using heroin hit
its highest point since the survey began in 1975, and more 10th-graders are
using steroids.

In an interview last week, the 58-year-old McCaffrey emphasized that the
drug war must be waged across a broad front -- at home, through education
and treatment, and abroad through eradication and interdiction programs.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of McCaffrey's tenure has been his
support for a significant increase in U.S. help for the counterdrug effort
in Colombia, the world's No. 1 producer and distributor of cocaine. The
bulk of the $1.3 billion package is earmarked for the Colombian military.

Doubts about the program seem to be on the rise. To some, the Colombian
military is too prone to human rights abuses to qualify for U.S. help.
Others say the assistance could get the United States involved in
Colombia's war with leftist insurgents.

And some skeptics worry that European donors and Colombia's South American
neighbors have not been supportive enough.

McCaffrey has an answer: Just wait. When the Colombians receive U.S. spray
aircraft next year, the equation will change, he says, particularly for the
leftist FARC guerrillas who now make hundreds of millions off the narcotics
trade each year.

These aircraft "are going to descend on areas and knock out 10,000 hectares
at a whack," McCaffrey said. "It takes you 18 months of hard work with
chain saws and sweat, living like an animal, to get a coca crop into
production.

"Once you're persuaded that the government is going to intervene on month
15 and wreck your investment, you got to go to some other course of action."