DRUG WAR CHARADE

The Clinton administration has issued its annual set of "report cards"
on how well other countries are cooperating with the United States in
efforts to stamp out the illicit narcotics trade. Once again, the most
undeserved good grade went to Mexico, which President Clinton says is
"fully cooperating" in trying to stem the flow of drugs across the
border.

That's nonsense. Since last year, when Mexico also won a gold star,
there's been no visible evidence of improvement, despite President
Ernesto Zedillo's apparent good intentions. A majority of the hard
drugs entering this country still are produced in or flow through
Mexico; rampant corruption at all levels continues to virtually
immunize drug kingpins from prosecution; and to date not a single
major drug trafficker sought by U.S. authorities has been extradited
by Mexico.

Yet as false as the president's certification is, the original sin
lies with Congress, which since 1986 has required administrations to
go through an exercise that insults other countries, forces U.S.
officials to lie to avoid worsening relations and achieves nothing of
substance. Indeed, this year only two countries, Afghanistan and
Burma, failed to pass muster - but they're already in the U.S. rogues'
gallery.

Four countries - Cambodia, Haiti, Nigeria and Paraguay - were declared
not fully cooperative but were exempted from U.S. sanctions to avoid
further crippling their already weak economies or as a means of urging
them to do better, or both. Marginally, that makes more sense than
simply awarding a good grade that everyone knows is bogus.

Congressional critics of this charade, among them California's Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, are right to denounce the hypocrisy, and the
arrogance, of handing out report cards saying what is patently false.
Yet in the circumstances, Clinton had no real choice: Denouncing a
next-door neighbor with which we have growing commercial and human
ties will neither improve relations nor catch more traffickers, nor
will it do anything to shrink the huge demand in this country for
illegal drugs.

In that context, one angry Mexican industrialist suggested that Mexico
certify as to how well the United States is doing in its war on the
drug trade. That's an interesting idea, but an even better one is for
Congress to end the certification charade, provide more funds for
prevention and treatment in this country, and let the administration
deal with Mexico and other drug-producing countries without having
headline-seeking politicians driving the agenda.