BIN LADEN TO BE POSTER BOY IN WAR ON DRUGS

In the 1980s first lady Nancy Reagan led the government effort to get kids
to "just say no" to illegal drugs.

Today, government officials want to use Osama bin Laden as a poster boy in
the war against drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America and other players in the drug war aim to link the terrorist
mastermind and illicit drugs in a campaign targeted at kids.

Federal drug investigators say that Afghanistan's Taliban party relies on
income from the drug trade - particularly opium - to stay financially
viable. And that strength, investigators believe, enabled the Taliban to
harbor bin Laden despite international pressure to hand him over.
Afghanistan produced more than 70 percent of the world's supply of illicit
opium in 2000, according to the State Department.

The DEA has no direct evidence confirming that bin Laden himself is
involved in the drug trade.

In 1999, Taliban officials said they would reduce opium poppy cultivation
by one-third. But the DEA said opium production has continued to grow in
Afghanistan.

"The line between (terrorists and drug dealers) is growing increasingly
difficult to draw," said Raphael Perl, a senior policy analyst for
international terrorism and narcotics issues with the Congressional
Research Service of the Library of Congress.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America released poll results Tuesday
indicating that if U.S. teens knew more about the link between illegal
drugs and terrorism, they would be less likely to use drugs.

Forty-six percent of youths between 12 and 17 polled in early November said
they believed that international terrorism is financed at least in part by
the illegal drug trade. Sixty-two percent said that knowing illegal drug
use helps finance terrorism would make them less likely to use drugs.

A separate poll in early October found that 77 percent of teens favored
having information about the link delivered through anti-drug television
commercials.

While the partnership has yet to formulate the specifics of it campaign,
Stephen Pasierb, president of the partnership, said the war on terrorism
presents an opportunity to help parents educate their children about drugs.

"The ability to motivate the country is one we have not had in the past few
years," Pasierb said.