TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG WAR

The Clinton administration's decision to certify Mexico in the war on drugs
does not change the facts: Drug use in the United States and drug
trafficking through Mexico are on the rise. According to the
administration's own National Drug Control Strategy, "since 1992, there has
been a substantial increase in the use of most drugs -- particularly
marijuana" among American youth. Meanwhile, record levels of illegal drugs
are entering the United States from Mexico; more than $ 10 billion in drugs
crossed our southwest border in 1997, and the Border Patrol in Texas alone
seized $765 million worth. And Drug Enforcement Administration Director
Thomas Constantine recently told Congress that official corruption in Mexico
is "unparalleled to anything I've seen in 30 years of law enforcement."

Clearly, certification and decertification have no meaning against a
backdrop of rampant corruption and trafficking in Mexico and the drug
epidemic on America's streets. The current certification process has become
a finger-pointing exercise in mutual deception, while too little progress is
being made in the drug war.

Many of us in Congress, particularly those representing border states, have
long sought an alternative to this process, which forces us to choose
between false alternatives of full cooperation (certification), or
insufficient cooperation (decertification). Even with a waiver on national
security grounds as permitted by current law, decertification places a
country in a pariah status reserved for countries that the United States
hopes to isolate from the rest of the global community. It would be
unproductive and short-sighted to place Mexico, with which we share a
2,000-mile border, in that position.

In addition to offering a false choice, the current process also focuses too
much on countries and too little on objectives. For example, while we are
ostensibly evaluating Mexico, what we're really interested in is whether
we're making progress on drug eradication, law enforcement and education.
These are objectives that cut across borders and involve a number of
countries, the United States included.

It would be better -- and I am working with other senators to write such
legislation -- to identify desired objectives that require cooperation among
several countries and develop a process by which we evaluate progress across
a broad front. For example, apprehension of drug kingpins is an objective
that literally respects no border as these international criminals hopscotch
throughout the hemisphere seeking haven. While any given country may be lax
in pursuing a given druglord, it may be more useful to compare that
country's effort with those in other countries and establish a more
comprehensive approach to the problem.

This process would allow the United States, in cooperation with other
countries in the hemisphere, to develop a multi-national web of
relationships among law enforcement agencies, military forces, banking
institutions and governments needed to wage a real war on drugs. It would
allow us, together with our allies in this war, to determine where extra
resources may be needed -- in eradication, law enforcement, surveillance,
etc. -- to address a specific objective. Such a look-back procedure is
sorely lacking in the current certification process.

It would also open us up to greater self-assessment, because counter-drug
use/education efforts -- where the statistics clearly show the United States
is failing -- would be part of any list of objectives. The current process
allows us to bash an individual country -- Mexico, this year -- and avoid
talking about the unpleasant reality that the U.S. counter-drug education
efforts since 1993 could best be described as too little, too late. In fact,
many members of Congress vent their frustration on Mexico's supply problem
because they feel nearly powerless to reinvigorate efforts to stem America's
demand problem.

We are also considering a proposal that would exempt from the certification
process any country with which the United States has a bilateral anti-drug
cooperation agreement. That seems a reasonable starting point for a
discussion about how to end the annual certification charade, but any such
proposal would have to include regular administration -- and
congressional -- review of those agreements so that they may be strengthened
where necessary.

The first casualty in war is the truth, and that's been the case in the war
on drugs. We're only going to win this war by telling the plain truth, and
the plain truth is that too many countries, including Colombia, are
producing drugs. Too many countries, including Mexico, are trafficking in
drugs. And too many countries, including the United States, are using drugs.
Finger-pointing won't solve this problem. Cooperation where helpful, and
confrontation where necessary, will.

The writer is a Republican senator from Texas.