WHITE HOUSE SEES ILLEGAL DRUG USE SLOWING IN AMERICA

MEXICO CITY, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The top White House drug official
said on Wednesday illegal drug use in America had slowed and cocaine
consumption was falling.

Edward Jurith, acting director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, said the Bush administration had good news from
a recent national survey of 70,000 households on the use of illicit
drugs.

"That survey showed that drug use in America is relatively flat. The
abuse of cocaine, marijuana and heroin are not increasing. In fact,
we were pleased that our cocaine use level was at the lowest ever,"
Jurith said during a visit to Mexico.

The survey indicated that 7 percent of Americans used drugs in the
previous month, down from 14 percent in 1980, he told a news
conference. It showed cocaine use had dropped 70 percent since 1985
and drug use was declining among young people.

"Our drug trends are relatively flat right now and that's good news,"
Jurith told a news conference. "We still have a high drug use
problem, with 14 million users and 5 million addicts, but we've made
significant progress in the past two decades in reducing prevalence
of drug use in the United States."

U.S. President George W. Bush has made reducing demand a centerpiece
of his drug control effort, and Jurith was in Mexico City for a
bilateral meeting on the issue.

He said Bush plans to increase treatment funding by $1.6 billion over
five years, boost community-based prevention programs and promote
public education through the media.

Unlike the United States, Mexico has seen cocaine use grow sharply in
the past decade. Mexico is a key transport route for Andean cocaine
headed to the United States, and in recent years traffickers have
begun paying for passage with drugs instead of dollars, said Guido
Belsasso, national anti-addiction commissioner in the Mexican Health
Ministry.

He and Jurith said new trafficking patterns may be emerging in light
of tightened security at the U.S.-Mexico border following the Sept.
11 aerial attacks on New York and Washington, with more of the drugs
possibly remaining in Mexico and Central America.

After years of joint efforts that have often been marred by suspicion
and hostility, the United States and Mexico appear to have opened a
new chapter in cooperation in fighting the drug trade.

The two governments released a joint statement on Wednesday saying
they would share information and coordinate efforts to reduce demand
while continuing to fight powerful drug cartels that ship cocaine and
other drugs through Mexico and into the United States.

"Because we are neighbors who share a border, a culture and a future,
there is no alternative to cooperation in the campaign against drug
use and its consequences," Bush said in a letter to officials
attending the three-day bilateral meeting.