SOME SAY DRUG WAR BEING LOST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With victory in the war against drugs still not in sight,
the Clinton administration is preparing for another escalation that includes
a $1.6 billion package to assist Colombia's counternarcotics efforts.

On Friday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was traveling to the
Colombian coastal city of Cartagena, the site of an anti-drug summit a
decade earlier where President Bush said the United States was ready to join
forces with Colombia, Bolivia and Peru to battle drugs.

Virtually no one is happy with what has occurred on the drug front since
that summit.

Of all the figures relating to the drug war, perhaps none is more
discouraging than the 140 percent increase in coca leaf production in
Colombia -- 81,400 tons in 1998 compared with 33,900 tons in 1989. Estimates
last year indicated a continuing explosion despite record levels of
eradication. The cocaine glut means a decline in prices -- 55 percent since
1981.

As for opium poppy, the raw material for heroin, production in Colombia was
zero in 1989. By last year, it had skyrocketed to 61 tons, much of it
earmarked for U.S. markets, where illegal drug use remains high among
teen-agers and young adults.

A government report last year indicated 10 percent of U.S. teen-agers use
illegal drugs -- down from 1997 but still nearly double 1992's level.

On Friday, Albright planned to confer with Colombian President Andres
Pastrana about the administration's two-year package for Colombia. Among
other components, the package will provide training for special
counternarcotics battalions and 30 Blackhawk and 33 Huey helicopters for
counter-drug activities. Funds also will be used for radar, aircraft and
airfield upgrades, and improved intelligence gathering.

When Bush met in February 1990 with the presidents of Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru, he hailed the session as ``having forged an unprecedented alliance
against the drug trade.''

Bush promised economic aid to help the three countries wage the drug battle
and to persuade their farmers to switch to legal crops. A joint communiqué
called for tougher enforcement of drug laws, better exchanges of information
and increased restrictions on the movement of firearms.

Critics of U.S. policy abound.

``The drug war is futile,'' says Tim Lynch of the libertarian Cato
Institute. ``Progress is not being made and we need to look at alternatives,
including legalization.''

Lynch says U.S. territory is simply too vast to prevent illicit drugs from
entering the country, particularly in view of the increasingly high-tech
devices used by drug kingpins. To confuse U.S. law enforcement, drug cartels
sometimes resort to fake transactions, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Use of encryption devices also impairs anti-drug efforts.

John Walsh of Drug Strategies, a private group, says $26 billion has been
spent over the past 20 years on interdiction and international supply
control programs.

``By key measures with which we can gauge drug availability, they are all
going in the wrong direction,'' Walsh said, arguing that the answer is to
halt interdiction and eradication efforts and instead focus on treatment of
drug users.

``We know chapter and verse that treatment works to reduce drug use and
reduce crime related to drug use,'' he said. The problem, he says, is that
treatment programs are under funded.

Taking aim at the planned increase in military assistance for Colombia
counternarcotics efforts, the liberal Washington Office on Latin America
says the proposal threatens to implicate the United States in Colombia's
brutal civil war.

But the plan appears to have substantial congressional support, especially
among Republican lawmakers. The proposal is in line with a $1.6 billion
program outlined last fall by three GOP senators: Paul Coverdell of Georgia,
Mike DeWine of Ohio and Charles Grassley of Iowa.

Coverdell said the administration proposal ``is good news for Colombia and
good news for our nation's ability to stem the flow of illegal drugs across
our borders.''