From: [b--d--y] at [westworld.com]
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.pot.cultivation
Subject: DEA Administrator indicates War On Drugs Isn't Working
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 04:55:02 GMT

  Visit  the D.E.A. home page and you'll find charts and statistics
claiming that  drug use has declined steadily from 1979 to 1994, which
supposedly proves that the "war on drugs" is working, however, in
testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on August 8,
1995, (the full text of which is also available at the DEA home page)
Thomas A. Constantine, Administrator for the Drug Enforcement
Administration  stated the following:
   "Mr. Chairman, an important 1989 drug seizure gave us a glimpse of
the magnitude of the problem law enforcement faces and also
illustrates just how important Mexico is to our efforts to control
illegal drugs coming into our country.  In late 1989, DEA made
America's largest cocaine seizure on record (over 21.5
tons) in Sylmar, California. This cocaine came across the border at El
Paso and was trucked to the West Coast.  Drug law enforcement was
encouraged by such a huge seizure, and we were convinced that we had
seriously wounded the Colombian drug organizations by preventing such
a large amount of illegal drugs from reaching our streets.
   But, we realized our encouragement was premature when we analyzed
seized records.  What we found was even more astounding.  We learned
that during only a 3-month period, the organization had succeeded in
smuggling 55 tons of cocaine into the U.S.  This cocaine had been
trucked to Los Angeles and had already been distributed on our
streets.
   _One of the most disturbing aspects of this case is that ten years
ago, we measured drug seizures in grams and pounds. Today, we
routinely measure seizures in tons-even multitons._  In January, for
example, in Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston, we seized 6.5 tons
of cocaine.  In July, we seized over 5 tons of cocaine in the border
town of El Paso.  And one of the primary reasons for these multiton
shipments of cocaine is the efficient and mutually-rewarding
relationship that has emerged between the cocaine mafia in Colombia
and the drug trafficking groups operating in Mexico."

 Now if the head of the DEA is admitting before congress that the
amount of cocaine hitting the streets has increased rather than
declined over the last ten years,  how do they figure that their War
On Drugs is working?