America won't say no to drugs, and Mexico won't say no to
drug money. Should U.S. politicians punish Mexico for its
failings, or turn their eyes closer to home?

President Clinton stirred up a storm by choosing late
last month to certify Mexico as an ''ally'' in the drug
war. Democrats and Republicans in Congress are uniting to
overrule him. It's not hard to see why.

Just a week earlier, Mexico had arrested its brandnew
antinarcotics chief for suspected ties to drug kingpins.
Until the arrest, he had access to sensitive U.S.
intelligence.

Mexico and the Clinton team tried to spin the news as
proof that Mexican authorities are cleaning house. But how
deep does the corruption run if the drug czar himself was
on the take?

At this point, Congress seems to want only symbolic
action. On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee voted
275 to decertify Mexico as a drug war ally, but to let
the president waive sanctions such as cuts in aid and
loans that the law would otherwise demand.

''Decertification says we're serious,'' said Minority
Leader Dick Gephardt, DMo. ''The waiver says we value the
(U.S.Mexico) relationship and want to work together.''

Mexico won't take it that way. It is notoriously thin
skinned about the giant to its north. For once, it may have
a point: What right do we have to complain about our
criminals corrupting their police?

If Congress really wanted to punish drug war noshows,
it could start much closer to home. For example, until the
start of campaign '96, when he at least started talking
tough, our president just didn't take the drug issue
seriously.

He joked about his own past marijuana use, turned a
blind eye to recent drug abuse by White House staffers and
downgraded the drive to choke off the drug pipelines into
this country.

If Mexico slacked off, it was just following the U.S.
example.

And we wouldn't stop with Clinton. The American public
also has to share the blame. Voters had clear evidence
before them that use of illegal drugs among the young has
jumped since Clinton took office. They also could see how
little he was doing in response. They reelected him
anyway.

And in two states, Arizona and California, voters
backed measures to make marijuana partially legal and, in
effect, to encourage its use.

The U.S. has plenty of reasons to be unhappy with
Mexico. And Colombia, under its current drugtainted
government, looks downright hopeless.

But Mexico, and even Colombia, also have reason to
complain about the U.S., the biggest consumer of illicit
drugs in the world. Drugs flowing north are just half the
problem. The other half is money flowing south: It's an
enormous lure to corruption in poor countries (and in many
areas of our own nation).

Foreigners ought to resist the temptation but we ought
not provide it.

Nancy Reagan had it right. Just saying no, here in the
U.S., is still the answer. Until demand dries up here, drug
lords around the world will have market forces on their
side.

A draft analysis by U.S. intelligence officials
estimates ''that Mexican drug traffickers earn up to $ 10
billion a year and then dole out as much as $ 6 billion on
bribes for Mexican officials and police officers,'' The New
York Times reports.

That $ 6 billion is twice the budget of the FBI, six
times the budget of the Drug Enforcement Administration. It
also dwarfs any aid that Mexico could lose from drugwar
decertification.

Interdiction would have a chance if it were tied to a
serious drop in demand in the U.S. That was the twopronged
approach of U.S. drug policy in the '80s, and it made some
real progress. But we've lost a lot of ground since. On the
supply side, as Rep. Benjamin Gilman, RN.Y., puts it, the
administration's ''narcotics control strategy is in
shambles.''

The demand side? The Partnership for a DrugFree
America released a survey last week. It showed children
starting to use drugs, especially marijuana, earlier in
their lives than ever before. Focusing on kids nine to 12,
the study came up with some ominous findings:

The number of preteens who
experimented with marijuana rose to 450,000 in '96 from
230,000 in '95. As a share of the age group, the jump was
from 2% to 4%.

While 65% of the kids last year
agreed with the statement ''people on drugs act stupid,''
more 71% felt that way the year before.

Among children aged 11 and 12,
13% said they had friends who use marijuana. That's up
from 7% in '95.

It gets a lot worse in the
teens. Among sixth graders, 8% said they experimented with
drugs. That rose to 23% of seventhgraders and a third of
eighth graders. Other recent surveys tell the same tale:
Adult drug use is static or dropping, but kids' use is
rising sharply. And a lot of the drugs are homemade
(methamphetamine) and homegrown (much of the marijuana).

Mexico could do a lot better and needs to be told so.
But our neighbors can only do so much, so long as we
decline to clean our own house.