FIGHTING RISING DRUG ABUSE INSIDE MEXICO'S BORDERS

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 11, 1999 -- If he could take control of the millions
of dollars Mexico spends each year to combat drug trafficking, Miguel
Gonzalez Espinosa would spend a little less of it on high-tech,
heavily armed operations at airports and along the border, aimed at
stopping the flow of drugs from Colombia on their way to the United
States. Gonzalez, who proudly calls himself a recovering alcoholic,
directs a small drug rehabilitation center in the downtrodden
neighborhood that surrounds the city's Basilica de Guadalupe. He sees
firsthand the toll taken by a less-talked-about, but increasingly
damaging problem: the rise in drug abuse - especially cocaine and
crack - among Mexican youth.

In just the last two months, his residential treatment center, which
relies entirely on private donations, has taken in 12 new clients and
is running above capacity, with 40 residents.

One of them is Gloria Acevedo, 15, who had been living on the streets
for two years, stealing and working as a prostitute to support her
cocaine habit. Marco Antonio Salazar, 19, arrived stoned after he beat
up his sister and was kicked out by his parents. And an addiction to
crack led Isaac Perez, 22, to quit his job, sell all his belongings
and steal cars.

"We are in a drug crisis up to our necks,'' said Gonzalez, president
of the Fundacion Dr. Sergio Berumen, the residential treatment program
named for a philanthropist who gave seed money for the center. "When
traffickers cannot get their drugs across the border, they sell it
here.''

Mexico has been recognized for years as a major transit station for
drugs. More than half of the cocaine smuggled into the United States
passes through Mexico, as well as much of the heroin and marijuana.

At a U.N. meeting about the drug trade last summer, President Ernesto
Zedillo characterized his country's crisis as one that is generated by
drug consumer nations, especially the United States. There are new
signs, however, that the number of Mexican consumers is on the rise.

A 1997 report by the Ministry of Health says that in the last six
years cocaine use has quadrupled among Mexicans ages 12 to 19. Among
patients at government-run treatment centers in Mexico City, whose
numbers have increased from 4,500 to 13,500 in the last six years,
marijuana remains the drug of choice for most adolescents, health
officials report. But cocaine, particularly crack, ranked second -
before cheaper choices like glue and paint thinner.

The government has responded to the problem with increased funding to
its own drug treatment centers. It has also created a public service
campaign called "Live Without Drugs.'' The campaign includes radio and
television announcements, educational programs in schools and a Web
site that answers questions about drug abuse.

In cities across the country, including Culiacan, Ciudad Victoria, San
Luis Potosi and Hermosillo, the police have proposed a program known
as Operation Backpack, which would allow them to search students for
drugs and weapons, although some parents have expressed reservations.
Parents have started community patrols around school playgrounds and
parks.

Compared with the voracious consumption of drugs in the United States,
Mexico's drug problem remains small. But to Gonzalez even one
drug-addicted child is too many. "Every day I see how drugs are
destroying young people,'' Gonzalez said.

As in the United States, drug abuse in Mexico is spreading fastest in
poor communities where unemployment is high and education levels are
low, Gonzalez said.

Ms. Acevedo, a flirtatious girl who dyes her hair strawberry blond and
wears sparkly pink lipstick, ran away from a shattered family. She
said her mother, a waitress, and her father, a street vendor, began
using drugs when she was just an infant. Both would stay away from
home for days at a time, leaving her to beg for food from neighbors
for herself and her three younger brothers.

At 11, she said, she began stealing her parents' drugs and hiding in
the cluster of fruit trees in her backyard to get high.

"The first time I ever got high, I thought, this is what life is
supposed to be,'' she said. "I had found something that would fill the
emptiness.''

She ran away at 12 and lived in train stations or abandoned offices.
Last October she nearly died from an overdose.

"All I wanted was drugs,'' she recalled. "Suffering for me was when I
didn't have anything to get to make me high.''

When it opened 10 years ago, the Fundacion Dr. Sergio Berumen
primarily served alcoholic adults, who needed a place to dry out so
they could go home to their families. Over the last five years,
Gonzalez said, younger people started coming for help, and they were
addicted to drugs, not alcohol.

Today, Gonzalez said, more than 80 percent of the residents are drug
addicts between 13 and 20. The white metal front door is almost always
left open, Gonzalez said. Residents are free to leave anytime they
please.

Group meetings are held five times a day for the residents to talk
with one another about their addictions and any other distress.

At a recent meeting, the 19-year-old Salazar spoke from the podium for
more than 15 minutes. This time of year is especially hard for him, he
said, echoing the feelings of many in the room.

It hurt, he said, that he could not celebrate the holidays with his
8-month-old son.

"I want to be with my family,'' he said. "But I am afraid of what I
would do if someone offered me drugs.

"I wonder if I will ever feel ready to go home.''