OAS: MIXED RESULTS FOR LATIN AMERICA IN DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Latin America and the Caribbean are doing a better
job in the war on drugs but budget problems and savvy traffickers threaten
that progress, the Organization of American States said on Thursday.

The annual "Progress Report in Drug Control" said cultivation of illegal
substances was dropping, seizures were rising or holding steady and nations
increasingly were working together.

The 34-member OAS includes Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Canada, some
of the largest suppliers of cocaine, marijuana and heroin to the United
States.

"There is evidence of sustained progress in implementing control measures,
particularly in harmonizing a legal framework to deal with the various
facets of the drug problem," said the report by the group's Inter-American
Drug Abuse Control Commission.

Unfortunately, "on many occasions, the decisions taken have not been
accompanied by appropriate budgetary support," the commission said.

"The (drug) problem did not occur overnight, the solutions will not occur
overnight," said Paul Kennedy, Canada's senior assistant deputy minister of
public safety and emergency preparedness. Kennedy chairs the drug abuse
control commission.

"But if you look at those charts ... they are indicative of the kinds of
trends that we would like to see," he said in a press conference.

The commission issues recommendations to countries on issues ranging from
the control of chemical precursors used to make drugs to national drug
plans.

Of the 325 recommendations made in 2001-2002, 82 had been completed, 186
were "in progress" and 57 had not been addressed, mostly due to budget
problems, Kennedy said.

The OAS report said the cultivated areas of coca fell from 196,000 hectares
(484,300 acres) in 1993 to 163,000 hectares (402,800 acres) in 2002, a 17
percent drop.

But criminals "are using new techniques to maximize the cocaine they can
produce from a smaller area," Kennedy said.