US DRUGS EXPERT HAS NO SOLUTION

SO Prime Minister John Howard has invited yet another US ''expert'', White
House adviser on drugs, General Barry McCaffrey, to come to Australia to
tell us how to solve the drug problem (CT, 14 July).

This is all well and good for any that might be duped by the propaganda.
But the more astute will ask for the evidence that demonstrates that the US
has solved the problem.

One indication of their lack of success is in a recent ABC news item of a
report presented to the US Congress that record amounts of drugs are being
smuggled into the country, despite an expensive campaign against Colombian
traffickers. The report states unequivocally that the US is losing the war
against Colombian drug traffickers. No! The visit from this next ''expert''
holds no promise of helping overcome the tragedy.

He is only being brought out as a cynical public relations exercise to
bolster support for PM John Howard's increasingly shaky Zero Tolerance
approach.

B McCONNELL
Higgins