DRUG WAR

U.N. should take lead in fighting this scourge

Ambitious is the word to use in describing the global anti-drug strategy
crafted by former anti-Mafia crusader Pino Arlacchi. Because the plan by
the current head of the U.N. anti-drug agency is so sweeping - promising as
it does massive reductions in the worldwide availability of cocaine and
heroin - it virtually sets itself up for skepticism. But instead of carping
at such a vision, the nations of the world should eagerly second Mr.
Arlacchi's overriding message: the need to reduce demand and supply at the
same time.

Fortunately, the approach generally dovetails with the views of another
influential player in the fight, President Clinton. In a speech Monday, he
used the occasion of the U.N. General Assembly's first session in a decade
dedicated exclusively to drug-related issues, to warn that merely pointing
fingers helps no one.

Cooperation can indeed work wonders in the context of an approach that
centers on education and treatment, as well as interdiction, crop
eradication and crop substitution. In this regard, Mr. Clinton has promised
to request more than $17 billion in drug fighting money from Congress in
the next fiscal year, with $6 billion to be set aside for reducing demand.

But the U.N. proposal to extend infrastructure aid to producer countries
such as Afghanistan and Burma for phasing out the cultivation of opium and
coca leaf should remain a nonstarter as long as such nations continue to
violate human rights.

The fallout from noncooperation can be found in the ongoing spat between
President Clinton and President Ernesto Zedillo over Operation Casablanca.
The U.S. law enforcement sting last month netted 26 Mexican banker-money
launderers, but was deeply resented by the Zedillo government because U.S.
officials kept Mexico in the dark. Yet just as Mexico's frustration is
understandable, so are the concerns of U.S. officials who feared for the
lives of U.S. drug agents on both sides of the border.

That hardly means that greater cooperation is unachievable. To the
contrary, precisely because the goal is in everyone's best interests, the
world must continue to strive diligently for it.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)