Pubdate: Tue, 19 Dec 2000
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2000 Star Tribune
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Author: George Gedda, Associated Press Writer
Related: McCaffrey's website http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/

OLD SOLDIER LOOKS BACK ON DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barry McCaffrey says his experience at West Point
did nothing to prepare him for the misery and human destruction that
he' s seen in his five years as the nation' s anti-drug chief.

" I never knew anybody who used cocaine or marijuana, " he said. That
goes for his high school and college days, too.

With his drug policy under fire from Republicans, President Clinton
recruited McCaffrey as his drug-war point man 10 months before the
1996 election. At the time, McCaffrey was the youngest four-star
general, and he retired from the Army to take the job.

" I' ve seen more misery in this job, more human destruction than I
did in combat, " said McCaffrey, who saw fighting in the Vietnam and
Persian Gulf wars.

" There are 5 million chronically addicted Americans, " he said. "
Each year, probably on the order of 52, 000 die from some cause
related to drug abuse."

After McCaffrey' s appointment, Congress promptly increased the
drug-control budget. The result, McCaffrey says, was a 21 percent drop
by narcotics use by 12- to 17-year olds.

" None of this would have happened without a 55 percent increase in
drug prevention education funding, " he said.

Statistics showing forward movement in the drug war -- some predating
his arrival -- roll off McCaffrey' s tongue.

" Casual cocaine use down by 70 percent in a decade, " he said. "
Overall drug use down by 50 percent, drug-related murders down by 50
percent."

The federal government reported earlier this month that teen-age drug
use held steady in 2000, the fourth straight year it has either fallen
or stayed the same. Smoking dropped significantly but use of the club
drug ecstasy among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders climbed for the
second year in a row.

The report also found the number of high school seniors using heroin
hit its highest point since the survey began in 1975, and more
10th-graders are using steroids.

In an interview last week, the 58-year-old McCaffrey emphasized that
the drug war must be waged across a broad front -- at home, through
education and treatment, and abroad through eradication and
interdiction programs.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of McCaffrey' s tenure has been
his support for a significant increase in U.S. help for the
counterdrug effort in Colombia, the world' s No. 1 producer and
distributor of cocaine. The bulk of the $1.3 billion package is
earmarked for the Colombian military.

Doubts about the program seem to be on the rise. To some, the
Colombian military is too prone to human rights abuses to qualify for
U.S. help. Others say the assistance could get the United States
involved in Colombia' s war with leftist insurgents.

And some skeptics worry that European donors and Colombia' s South
American neighbors have not been supportive enough.

McCaffrey has an answer: Just wait. When the Colombians receive U.S.
spray aircraft next year, the equation will change, he says,
particularly for the leftist FARC guerrillas who now make hundreds of
millions off the narcotics trade each year.

These aircraft " are going to descend on areas and knock out 10, 000
hectares at a whack, " McCaffrey said. " It takes you 18 months of
hard work with chain saws and sweat, living like an animal, to get a
coca crop into production.

" Once you' re persuaded that the government is going to intervene on
month 15 and wreck your investment, you got to go to some other course
of action."

Perhaps the most difficult moment for McCaffrey occurred in February
1997 when Mexican Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo was ousted as Mexican
drug czar on corruption charges just three months after he was appointed.

McCaffrey had seen the appointment as a breakthrough in the effort to
reduce Mexico' s role as a transit point for U.S.-bound cocaine. When
Gutierrez was named to the job, McCaffrey praised him as a " man of
impeccable integrity."

Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, said that
praise was one of several " spectacular mistakes" McCaffrey made in
assessing Latin Americans.

" He absolutely never listened to good advice from people who
understood the region much better than him, " Frechette said. " He
never had more than, at best, a naive understanding of Latin America."

But Frechette credits McCaffrey for emphasizing the important roles of
treatment and education in the struggle against addiction, and for
winning multiyear financing from Congress for counterdrug programs.

For these advances, he said, " We all have to take our hats off to
McCaffrey."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake