MEXICO, U.S. HOLD CONFERENCE ON DRUGS

SAN DIEGO -- Mexican and U.S. officials are putting aside their bickering
over drug smuggling -- at least for the next three days.

Mexican Health Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente and Barry McCaffrey,
director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, started a
three-day conference Wednesday in one of the epicenters of the narcotics
trade, but they are focusing on treatment and prevention of addiction, not
drug trafficking.

"We are convinced that the center of our drug strategy and the center of our
drug cooperation is to reduce the consumption of drugs among young people,"
McCaffrey said after touring a drug-treatment center in Tijuana.

De la Fuente and McCaffrey are the top officials at the second U.S.-Mexico
Drug Demand Reduction Conference, which runs through Friday at the Grand
Hotel in Tijuana.

"The purpose is to send a very clear message to Mexican society and to U.S.
society that we are putting particular emphasis on prevention and
treatment," De la Fuente said.

Drug use in Mexico has risen 30 percent in the past five years, he said,
citing a greater availability of drugs and the influence of the U.S. drug
culture on Mexican citizens.

The highest concentration of the country's drug addicts are in Tijuana, said
Jesus Cabrera, president of the non-profit Center of Juvenile Integration,
an organization that runs drug-treatment clinics in Mexico including the
Tijuana facility toured by officials Wednesday.

A 1998 survey by Mexico's health department found that of its 100 million
residents, nearly 6 percent of people over age 10 reported at least one
experience with drugs. In Tijuana, the rate was nearly 14 percent.

Cabrera said the disparity between Tijuana and the rest of Mexico could
coincide with the routes of drug traffickers, who use Tijuana to enter the
United States, or the daily interaction its citizens have with the United
States, "a country that has a drug problem more severe than us."

However, Tijuana is believed to be the operation base for Ramon and Benjamin
Arellano-Felix, brothers who control one of Mexico's most active drug cartels.

McCaffrey said nearly 400 people who work with drug addicts and enforce
anti-drug policies on both sides of the border will attend the conference.
He said the meeting is proof of improvement in bilateral relations and a
commitment to addressing the growing drug problems in both countries.