NEW FIGURES SHOW COLOMBIA HAS BIG SHARE OF US HEROIN MKT

WASHINGTON -- Newly released figures suggest that Colombia accounts for
most of the heroin in the United States, far more than previously
acknowledged by Bush administration officials reluctant to see U.S. drug
aid diverted from coca eradication.

Heroin is a derivative of opium. Coca is transformed into cocaine .

Drug officials had maintained that Colombia accounted for no more than a
third of heroin in the United States. A study that suggested otherwise was
removed from the Web site of the White House drug policy office because it
was considered unscientific and failed to support President Bush's drug
policies, according to an April 11 internal e-mail obtained by The
Associated Press.

In that e-mail, Barry Crane, deputy director for supply reduction, said
Congress was using the report to "sway Colombian and State personnel in
supporting the current unproven program of poppy spraying in Colombia."

That spraying program was credited Friday with cutting production of
heroin-yielding opium poppy by 25% in 2002. A statement issued by the White
House drug policy office said opium eradication would be increased next year.

In announcing a decline in opium, the office said it had revised its method
for calculating heroin production. It said Colombia's 12,103 acres of opium
poppy last year could yield 11.3 metric tons of heroin. The 2001 figures
were revised to 15.1 metric tons, more than triple the previous 4.3 metric
ton estimate for the 15,932 acres.

The drug office didn't estimate the percentage of U.S. heroin that is
believed to come from Colombia. Some of the Colombian production is seized,
dumped or shipped to other countries, so it wouldn't reach U.S. drug users,
said Dave Murray, a special assistant to the drug policy director, John
Walters.

On their face, however, the new numbers appear to comprise a large part of
the estimated 13 metric tons to 18 metric tons of heroin that drug
officials estimate Americans consume every year.

"It's off the charts," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., one of a group of House
members who argued that the United States, in its preoccupation with
Colombian cocaine , has done too little to fight heroin.

Over the last four years, Congress has provided Colombia with nearly $2.5
billion, mostly to fight drugs. The campaign has focused on coca, the raw
material for cocaine . Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine
and the source of almost all the cocaine that enters the United States.
Cocaine is more widely used in the United States than heroin, but heroin is
deadlier. Cocaine also provides more money to drug traffickers.

Coca is easier to eradicate because it takes more than a year to cultivate
and often is grown on large fields. Opium grows in smaller areas, often on
mountainsides that are difficult to spray, and two or three crops can be
produced in a year.

Anti-drug officials have had evidence that Colombian heroin was a greater
problem than official statistics reflected. The Drug Enforcement
Administration reported that 56% of the heroin seized by federal
authorities in 2001 was identified as South American, mostly Colombian.
Mexico accounted for 30 percent, Asia 14 percent.

A study by Abt Associates in Cambridge, Mass., used DEA data and other
information to conclude that about two-thirds of the heroin in the United
States probably is from Colombia. That study was posted on the drug policy
office's web site, then removed.

"As a scientist and a political appointee, I do not believe it passes
either the necessary scientific credibility tests, and it certainty does
not satisfy the test of supporting President Bush's policies," Crane said
in his e-mail explaining the removal.

Murray said studies relying on drug seizures are not reliable because they
may not be representative of the drug trade. William Rhodes, principal
scientist at Abt, agreed the study wasn't purely scientific, but said it
still could be useful.

"You'd have to think that if we came up with an estimate like 60% that
maybe it could be 50% or maybe it could be 70%, but it's hard to think that
the share of heroin from South America would be 20%," Rhodes said.

In the e-mail, Crane said the report was used to discredit Walters and win
support for the poppy spraying program.

"I take the strongest objection here, because there are five dead
(including one American) in the last six months from performing the
dangerous poppy mission that has not proven currently effective," Crane
said, referring to spray pilots killed in Colombia.

He said interdiction efforts are more effective on opium, and the spraying
program puts the anti-drug plan in Colombia at risk "because it
ineffectively uses scarce equipment for poppy eradication."

Crane was not available for comment. Murray said Crane was reflecting the
drug office's position that additional spray planes should not be diverted
from coca to opium eradication.

Mica said he received assurances from Walters that opium would be given a
greater priority.

Murray said the administration has already stepped up eradication and
interdiction. Noting the drop in opium production, he said, "It's not like
there's some undone step here."