Pubdate: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 Source: Inquirer (PA) Copyright: 2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Contact: 400 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19101 Website: http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/home/ Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/ Author: Ken Guggenheim (AP) OAS ANALYSIS HOLDS HOPE FOR DRUG POLICY WASHINGTON - Western Hemisphere nations this week will judge their strengths and weaknesses in fighting drugs under an Organization of American States analysis that some hope eventually could ease a source of tensions in U.S.-Mexican relations. Thirty-four experts will report to an OAS commission the results of the organization's first country-by-country drug study of the Americas, known as the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism, or MEM. Some U.S. and Latin American officials hope the MEM eventually will replace the U.S. drug certification system, under which this country annually judges other nations on their cooperation in fighting drugs. Those seen as not doing enough can face sanctions. That process has infuriated Mexico and other nations, who view it as condescending, an assault on their sovereignty and hypocritical, considering that the United States is the leading consumer of illegal drugs. "If the MEM gets the credibility that we think it will, it will weaken the [need for] the unilateral certification," said Claude Heller, the Mexican ambassador to the OAS. Among the main U.S. advocates of MEM is Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House drug policy office. "It will become increasingly apparent to the most thoughtful policy people in the administration of the hemisphere that our national interests are better served by this evaluation mechanism than by the former system of a series of binational confrontations," McCaffrey said in an interview. But the certification process cannot be changed without Congress' approval, and some lawmakers are skeptical about the multilateral system. "I welcome any effort to make countries, including the United States, take the need for a counter-drug policy seriously, but I'm concerned about the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism because it looks like it could be a gimmick to water down accountability, and nobody needs that," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Rep. John L. Mica (R., Fla.) said certification was merely a form of assuring that beneficiaries of U.S. financial support were helping fight drugs. "Would I let an international organization or another state decide whether a country should get financial aid, trade benefits or international assistance from the United States? When you think about it, the idea is almost farcical. No way," said Mica, chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources. Officially, the MEM system is unrelated to certification. At a 1998 summit, hemispheric leaders asked the OAS to create a system for judging progress on a range of drug issues and to improve cooperation. The OAS set up a panel of experts - one from each active member state - - to examine data provided by the countries. Those experts have prepared a draft report for each country, plus a hemispheric report, that will be presented to the OAS's Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission. The commission will spend the coming week reviewing and possibly modifying the reports. The hemispheric report probably will be released Friday; individual country reports are not expected to be released until January. All the reports will be submitted to hemispheric leaders at their next summit April 20-22 in Quebec City, Canada. Alberto Scavarelli of Uruguay, who chairs the experts' panel, said the MEM's importance was that it allowed countries to work together to fight drugs in an atmosphere of mutual respect. He said the United States would have to make up its own mind on the usefulness of the MEM, but he hoped it eventually would render the certification system unnecessary. - --- MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer