DEA CHIEF - WAR ON DRUGS HURTING

Selected Quotations From A Monitor Lunch With Dea Administrator Asa Hutchinson.

On what DEA contributes to the war on terrorism:

"What the DEA contributes that is underground, that is behind the scenes is
our intelligence. ... With offices in 56 countries, we have 400 DEA agents
overseas - about 10 percent of our force. If you are looking into what is
happening in the bad world... in terms of human intelligence you are going
to find it in that seedy hotel or bar..."

On changing drug laws:

"Here in the United States it is fair to debate our drug policies but we
need to debate them within the context of what we have learned from history
and it is moving in the wrong direction to decriminalize or take drug
offenses out of the criminal context. Within the criminal context, let's
debate them, but those should be the parameters."

On how to handle marijuana:

"Our legislators have to set the parameters for how we handle harmful
products. And they have set parameters for alcohol and parameters for
tobacco and they have set a different set of parameters for the more
harmful drugs that are out there from marijuana to heroin... We are an
enforcement agency. We take the laws and move on them.

"I think it is erroneous to argue that because we have regulated two
harmful products in alcohol and tobacco, that we ought to adopt the same
regime for other harmful products. I don't think that is necessarily
required. These are lines we have drawn and they are acceptable lines. I
don't think we should move the line to include more harmful products. If
you like what Phillip Morris has done with tobacco, what would they do with
marijuana cigarettes in the marketing strategy?"

On reducing drug use:

"I call it demand reduction which includes prevention, education but it
also includes treatment... I want to put more resources into the demand
reduction side, as well as tie it to our law enforcement efforts so we can
have a better and more long-lasting impact in the community. I also want to
leverage those resources against a community commitment. It is not just a
federal problem and I want to be able to see greater community commitment
whenever we recognize a serious drug problem. "So after we finish an
enforcement effort, we will send our resources in there be on the ground
helping to build the community coalitions, greater treatment, working with
the school counselors, working with the drug courts, I am a strong advocate
of (drug courts). Seeing if there can be a longer lasting impact, not just
taking the criminal organization out."

On law enforcement priorities since Sept. 11:

"Clearly we have mentioned Customs; the Coast Guard as well has moved some
of its Caribbean assets. (The Coast Guard has indicated) that between 65-70
percent of their assets were moved into port security. That has an impact.
I don't want Miami and the Caribbean to go back to the way it they were....
I have been really grateful for (support from European counterparts). They
had assets in the Caribbean and will help coordinate with us to make up the
difference. So I think we are holding our own. But long term we really
can't give a window of opportunity to the traffickers. It is a battle of
resources."

On the impact of changing assignments for FBI agents:

"I am not saying it has an impact in terms of the net result. Certainly
they have - if you are looking at Florida, they have the terrorism
investigation in Boca Raton, all the leads they had to follow in Boston and
Detroit and so on, the agents that were working with us on some drug cases.
They have had to pull off and do other duty. We have picked up the slack
and we will continue to do so to make sure we don't go backwards on this
effort."

On his assessment of the overall war on drugs:

"... We are holding our own. If you look at it historically from the mid
80s, we reduced cocaine use 75 percent. Overall drug use has reduced by
1/4th. But we plateaued out about 1992. We made the enormous progress
between the mid 80s and 1992. Since 92, it has been fairly level. So we
have to figure out how to get over that plateau. We have got to figure out
how to get over that plateau and move those statistics on a downward trend
again. In the last few years you see a few upticks, in heroin, for example,
and we are very concerned about methamphetamines being on the upswing. But
overall drug use has been fairly level.

"In the teens, you can point to some ages that have gone up, some have gone
down a little bit. So we are holding our own but we have got to move beyond
the plateau we have been on since 1992."

On why drug use has plateaued:

"It is lack of consistency. If you look the '92-93 timeframe, assets were
moved out of the Caribbean, interdiction efforts were reduced, the drug
czar's office was reduced, DEA agents were cut back, some of the national
messages were inconsistent and mixed. All of that combined had an impact
and we lost our momentum.... Consistency is the key to anti-drug
efforts.... It is a long battle on terrorism; it is a long battle on drugs."

On how Osama bin Laden uses drug money:

"Bin Laden has many sources of revenue.... I wouldn't want to make the case
that he is dependent on drug proceeds to fuel his terrorism. But whenever
you look at the terrorist training camps and the drug trade/drug
organizations carrying out their activities in the same geographic region
in Afghanistan, you have a combustible combination there. You have got
these drug organizations which make huge amounts of money and you have got
the terrorists that need money. And when they are both operating illegally
in the same region, there is going to be a symbiotic relationship between
the two. And I think that's what you see and you shouldn't ignore that
probability. The intelligence is a little bit more minimal in that regard
in reference to bin Laden, than it is with the Taliban which is very clear."

On whether the Taliban would stay in power without drug money:

"They would be severely limited in what they were capable of doing. As to
whether they would maintain their power, I don't know. But they would be
much more limited, severely limited in their abilities because they draw a
significant amount of revenue from it."