MONITOR BREAKFAST: ASA HUTCHINSON

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."