ANTI-DRUG DRIVE CALLED FAILURE

VIENNA, Austria (AP)- Critics of a U.S.-led global crackdown on illicit
drugs declared the policy a failure yesterday.

They called it "the war that America cannot win" and urged a United Nations
commission to consider other approaches to the problem.

Activists, think tanks and non-governmental organizations asked the U.N.
Commission on Narcotic Drugs to examine what they called a disturbing lack
of progress midway through a global campaign to curb drug cultivation,
trafficking and consumption by 2008.

Their harsh assessment came as delegates from 116 countries met in Vienna
to review the ambitious anti-drug effort. It was launched by the U.N.
General Assembly in 1998 and loosely modeled after the United States' "war
on drugs."

"This strategy has failed," the European Drug Policy Fund said in a
statement. "Far from making progress toward the goal of a 'drug-free world
by 2008,' drug consumption is in effect on the rise in both industrial and
developing countries, as are drug-related crime and other social ill-effects."

Consensus is building in Europe "that after years of continuous setbacks,
and with billions of dollars spent on destroying crops and putting people
in jail, it is now time to look at more promising alternatives," it said.

The Open Society Institute, a private foundation started by financier
George Soros, said the U.N.'s strict drug-control treaties are undermining
efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS because they discourage countries
from introducing effective public health measures.

It pointed to Russia and Ukraine, two countries it said have paid more
attention to cracking down on traffickers than on the health consequences
of intravenous drug use - and now have some of the world's fastest-growing
rates of HIV infection.

AIDS cases also are rising rapidly in Iran and Pakistan and across central
Asia, where, the OSI said, authorities are cracking down on drug
cultivation and trafficking at the expense of treatment and prevention
programs.

"In countries that are experiencing a rapid increase of drug use, the
reflex reaction is to become tougher on drug users," said Kasia
Malinowska-Sempruch, an OSI drug abuse expert.

"Locking up users in prisons is not a solution. It only serves to drive
users underground, making them less likely to seek out what few services do
exist for them."

Despite the criticism, this week's conference - organized by the
Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime - appeared unlikely to steer
the United Nations away from its goals of ridding the world of as much drug
use and crime as possible over the next five years.

Hassela Nordic Network, a Swedish organization, presented the U.N. agency
yesterday with 1.3 million signatures collected from people in 48 countries
supporting the ongoing anti-drug campaign.

However, the campaign's goals remain elusive, U.N. drug agency chief
Antonio Maria Costa conceded in a report issued ahead of the conference.

Although heroin and cocaine abuse have stabilized or declined in some
countries, the use of marijuana and illicit synthetic drugs such as
amphetamines, methamphetamines and Ecstasy is growing in others, the report
said.

"It appears that drug markets are expanding, colonizing new countries and
introducing new substances," the International Antiprohibitionist League
said, calling the campaign "the ignored war that should be stopped."