MAJOR ANTIDRUG EFFORT IS UNVEILED

Colombia, Meanwhile, Is Seeing An Increase In
Cocaine And Opium Production.

WASHINGTON -- Even as they announced an optimistic plan for combating
drug abuse in the next decade, federal officials disclosed yesterday
that they have seen an alarming new "explosion" of cocaine production
in Colombia.

Cultivation of cocaine has jumped 26 percent in the past year in
Colombia, with signs of an increase in opium production there as well,
said Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House drug czar.

The trend has threatened to cut deeply into the dramatic gains made
recently in stemming drug-trafficking in the Andean region,
particularly in Peru and Bolivia, McCaffrey said at a news briefing.

McCaffrey attributed the Colombian upturn in part to the fact that
heavily armed paramilitary groups now effectively control 40 percent
of the nation, tying the hands of President Andres Pastrana and his
young administration.

The general stressed, however, that Pastrana's administration had
demonstrated "a tremendous sense of partnership" with the United
States and a strong commitment to curtailing drug production.

That sentiment could prove a key factor next month when it comes time
for the Clinton administration to certify whether Colombia and other
nations have cooperated in anti-narcotics efforts. Colombia's status
was upgraded last year after two years of economic penalties.

No reaction

Colombian officials had no immediate reaction yesterday to McCaffrey's
comments.

The Colombian issue also drew no mention from top Clinton
administration officials at a White House ceremony as they presented a
long-term plan for controlling drugs in the United States.

Addressing several hundred supporters before a backdrop of antidrug
displays, Vice President Gore and other officials stressed that the
nation must not ease up in the drug war, despite recent gains in
quelling drug use among young people and other problem groups.

"When drug dealers still roam our streets and rob our children of
their dreams, and drug-related crime still ravages so many of our
neighborhoods, we know that we have barely begun," Gore said.

As part of $17.8 billion in antidrug funding proposed in President
Clinton's recent budget plan, the National Drug Control Strategy seeks
a 50 percent reduction in drug use and availability by 2007.

Multipronged approach

It offers a multipronged approach through education, prosecution,
treatment, interdiction and other means, and it establishes 97
"performance targets" to track how well those measures are working.

"We're going to hold ourselves to achieving absolute results,"
McCaffrey told the gathering.

But some antidrug groups and Republican lawmakers were unimpressed,
saying the White House's priorities are misplaced.

"More of the same failed policies" was the reaction from the
Lindesmith Center, a drug research group based in New York.

The group said federal officials should rely more heavily on proven
treatment programs instead of pumping more money into a "bottomless
pit" of failed programs, including a $195 million allotment this year
for celebrity ads urging young people to stay off drugs.