From: [b--r--e] at [rcf.rsmas.miami.edu] (Charlie Byrne)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: US Border Patrols on Way Out
Date: 16 Sep 1993 14:07:31 GMT

From the Good News/Bad News Department:
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Shift Proposed in War Against Drugs

	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The military and Customs Service's $1.1 billion
war on drugs has failed to slow the availability of cocaine on the
streets, leading administration officials to propose a shift in
resources spent on the interdiction effort, The Washington Post reported
Thursday.
	The newspaper, citing a classified review by the National Security
Council, said the NSC is proposing a ``controlled shift'' that would
redirect the Pentagon's resources toward more military aid for
operations aimed at dismantling cocaine laboratories and trafficking
operations in South America, the report said.
	The Post said the proposed shift is being criticized by officials at
the Customs Service and the Coast Guard, agencies that have led the
battle to prevent the shipment of drugs to the United States, because of
fears that fewer resources would hamper their efforts.
	``The Customs and the Coast Guard are going nuts over this,'' an
unnamed administration official told the newspaper.
	The Customs Service and Coast Guard operations are supported by the
Air Force's radar planes and by the Navy's Aegis guided-missle cruisers,
which provide early warning of airplanes and boats that might be
smuggling drugs into the United States.
	``General interdiction, which has been very costly, does not work,''
Attorney General Janet Reno told the Post last week.
	``I've not seen anything in the last six months that I've been in
office that's indicated to me that it's been a cost-effective effort,''
Reno said.
	The newspaper said the Pentagon, which spends $1.1 billion annually
in the interdiction effort, has been largely ``neutral'' toward the
National Security Council review.
	Administration officials said that other events, including cuts in
aid to South American countries where anti-drug efforts were being
supported, may overtake the NSC report.
	Cuts in foreign aid will affect several South American operations,
including a U.S.-built, military-style base in Peru's Upper Huallaga
Valley, where two-thirds of the world's coca is grown. Coca is the main
ingredient in cocaine.
	But Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and chairman of
the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign operations,
said he has seen little evidence of U.S. operations diminishing drug
production.
	``We've spent over $1 billion down there so far and we've
accomplished virtually nothing,'' Leahy said. ``We ought to realize it's
not going to work and call it quits.''
	The NSC report cites official U.S. government data showing that
despite record seizures of cocaine during the last four years, there has
been no drop in either the price or the purity of cocaine.

"Copyright 1993 by <UPI/>
Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup
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==============================================================================

Senator Patrick Leahy seems to have it spot on.
Good news is they are realizing that anti-drug efforts are not working.
Bad news is they want to keep trying, even on supply side.
Maybe when *this* doesn't work, they will be able to tell Americans:
"Nothing works, we have no choice but to try decriminalization".
Soon come. :-)
-Charlie