MEXICO BATTLES ITS BORDER TOWN DRUG ABUSE

TIJUANA, Mexico -- With a vial of crack cocaine teetering between her
fingers, a glassy-eyed woman pauses while rummaging through a pile of trash
near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nearby, a man in his 20s sits on the curb behind a parked pickup and lights
a vial with a tiny white rock inside. A police car passes as he inhales. A
forgotten hypodermic needle rests on the truck's tire.

Others shuffle by, their clothes and faces dirty as they awaken on a recent
midmorning from sidewalks, abandoned houses and cars. Several approach an
American reporter and photographer, wondering if they are potential
customers for their goods -- crack cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.

"Looking for anything special?" they ask in broken English.

This is the heart of Tijuana's drug district -- the street called Ni- os
Heroes, or Child Heroes, a noble name for a place where Mexico's youth
waste away smoking and shooting up on the curbs as traffic passes by.

Long a transit country where drugs passed through to an insatiable U.S.
market, Mexico has seen addictions to hard drugs skyrocket over the past
decade.

Now, officials fear tightened U.S. border security in the aftermath of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may exacerbate the problem as smugglers try to
sell their undelivered loads locally.

Mexican cities along the U.S. border already lead the country's drug use as
traffickers pay their transporters in drugs rather than money.

Tijuana has the highest consumption of illegal drugs in the country --
three times the national average, according to the government. The border
cities of Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros are close behind.

Recovered heroin addict Jose Luis Avalos, who runs a drug rehabilitation
center in Tijuana, said the longer the U.S. government seals the border,
the more dealers will be looking to the domestic market as an alternative.

Drug rehabilitation centers have grown rapidly in Tijuana.

Avalos' group, the Integral Recovery Center for Alcoholic and Drug Addicts,
is considered among the best. State human rights prosecutor Raul Ramirez
said abuses abound at some other centers. There have been cases of addicts
being beaten to death, chained to walls and denied food in the name of
discipline.

Ramirez blames the government for not doing enough for addicts. The failure
to clean up corruption has fueled the problem, he said.

"The police know where the drugs are being produced, where the heroin, the
cocaine are being distributed. They go by each week and get paid
themselves," Ramirez said.