U.S., UN ADD USERS TO TARGETS IN DRUG WAR

NEW YORK -- In the war on drugs, it is usually poppy-growing peasants,
machine gun-toting druglords and money-laundering bankers that get most of
the heat.

But if President Clinton and the United Nations have their way, ordinary
Americans will be hearing a lot more about the pernicious effects of
illegal drugs. The president on Monday unveiled plans for a five-year, $2
billion anti-drug media blitz as the U.S. contribution to a new UN program
to combat worldwide drug trafficking.

Clinton's pledge to pump up public pronouncements against illegal drugs
opened a three-day, UN-sponsored conference that for the first time is
putting the spotlight on the high-income, drug-consuming countries of the
world. Usually at these gatherings, it is the drug-producing countries in
Latin America and Asia that get most of the attention.

An over-reliance on drug interdiction strategies has come under fire from
developing countries in recent years. They say such strategies fail to
eliminate the ultimate cause of the worldwide drug problem: the drug user.

"Demand reduction creates a balanced approach," UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan told the conference. "It creates for the first time a responsibility
for nations where consumption is a problem as well as where production is a
problem."

Most consumers of illegal drugs reside in the industrialized nations of
North America and Western Europe. Though it reportedly is shrinking, their
demand fuels the worldwide drug trade.

Drug use is down in the U.S., according to official statistics, but
Americans still spend an estimated $57 billion every year on illegal drugs.
The number of drug users in the U.S. between 1979 and 1996 fell from an
estimated 25.4 million to 13.0 million, a 49 percent decline. Cocaine use
has plummeted 70 percent to 1.7 million people in the same period,
according to official studies.

The focus on drug-consuming nations comes after months of controversy
surrounding existing U.S.-sponsored anti-drug programs, which cost $16
billion a year. The Clinton administration has proposed pushing the tab to
$17.1 billion next year.

Last month's indictment and arrest of more than 150 Mexican and U.S.
bankers and business leaders was criticized by Mexican authorities, who
were not notified until the day of the arrests about the three-year
undercover operation.

Clinton attempted to smooth the flap by admitting that angry debates
between drug-supplying and drug-consuming nations had not advanced the
fight against drugs.

"Pointing fingers won't dismantle a single cartel, help a single addict or
prevent a single kid from trying heroin," he said. "The lines between
supply, demand and transit countries are increasingly blurred."

In addition to the anti-drug advertising campaign, Clinton said the U.S.
would give an additional 20 countries aid in tracking the laundering of
drug profits. He also unveiled an international drug fellowship program, in
which law enforcement officials from around the world will visit the U.S.
to work with its drug enforcement agencies.

The UN program that is expected to be adopted later this week was hammered
out in Vienna last March. It calls for a 10-year anti-drug program under
the auspices of a new UN Drug Control Program.

The program will be run by Italian
sociologist-turned-crime-syndicate-fighter Pino Arlacchi, who is credited
with locking up more than 200 Mafiosi in his own country.

Arlacchi wants $5 billion for the program, which aims to "achieve
significant and measurable results in demand reduction by the year 2008."
As outlined in the final declaration, the program encourages countries to
emphasize treatment, education, after-care, rehabilitation and social
reintegration for their drug users, "either as an alternative to conviction
or punishment or in addition to punishment."

Like the U.S. program, the UN plan places a heavy emphasis on traditional
interdiction efforts, with special attention given to amphetamines.

The report estimated that 30 million people worldwide abuse such drugs,
making them the fastest-growing category of illegal drugs.

That compares to 8 million heroin addicts, 13 million cocaine abusers and
140 million marijuana abusers.

Delegates to the conference, which drew representatives from 150 nations
and 30 world leaders, were greeted by a two-page open letter in the New
York Times attacking the new UN program.

It was signed by dozens of former Latin American mayors, police chiefs and
federal judges as well as financier George Soros, who provides support for
groups opposed to drug wars based on interdiction and criminalization.

"The bottom line is that (the UN program) is the same old policies," said
Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, the drug policy
research institute that coordinated the letter-signing campaign. "People
have been trying to reduce demand for many, many years, and the treatment
they come up with is putting people behind bars."

The group supports alternative approaches such as legalization and
methadone treatment for addicts.

Health Secretary Donna Shalala, who attended Monday's session, lashed out
at opponents of U.S. drug policy.

"It's pseudo-intellectualism," she said. "There is no scientific evidence
that these drugs aren't harmful and don't lead to deleterious social
effects."