Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jul 2000
Source: CNN.com (US Web)
Copyright: 2000 Cable News Network, Inc.
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Author: Reuters

US POINTS FINGER AT EUROPE FOR RISING COCAINE USE 

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) -- The United States released estimates on 
Wednesday pointing to a dramatic rise in the use of cocaine in Europe, 
bolstering its case for greater European involvement in helping 
Colombia wage war on drugs.  

European nations, led by Spain, Germany and Italy, consumed between 194 
and 207 tons of cocaine last year, up from 104 to 110 tons in 1996, 
according to a study prepared by the office of White House drug policy 
chief Barry McCaffrey.  

Ninety percent of the cocaine flowing to Europe comes from Colombia, 
and is mostly smuggled in ships across the Atlantic, partly through 
Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, the study said.  

The estimates were compiled from information provided by U.S. drug 
enforcement and intelligence agencies.  

The figures were released ahead of Friday's meeting in Madrid between 
European Union states to discuss aid donations to Colombia's plan to 
stop drug production and armed violence that are tearing the South 
American country apart.  

Colombia produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine, which is made from 
the leaf of the Andean coca bush.  

The U.S. Congress last week approved a $1.3 billion package of aid for 
Colombia, mostly military assistance and helicopters to mount an 
offensive into parts of southern Colombia that are controlled by left-
wing guerrillas financed by the lucrative drug trade.  

European governments are willing to fund alternative crops and social 
programmes, but are critical of the U.S. move to boost military aid to 
the Colombian army, fearing this will deepen a civil war that has cost 
35,000 lives in the last decade.  

U.S. officials and experts on Colombia said the Europeans had tended to 
see the Colombian crisis as a U.S. problem, but the rapid rise in 
cocaine has made Europe equally responsible.  

"This report shows that we are all in this together and that it is in 
everyone's interest to work with the Andean countries to help confront 
drug trafficking and abuse," said a spokesman for U.S. drug "czar" 
McCaffrey.  

U.S. cocaine consumption, which shot up in the 1970s and 1980s, has
leveled off at around 300 tons a year, the study said.

The United States is the world's largest market for the drug, but 
Europe is seeing a rise in consumption similar to U.S. society in 
earlier decades, the study said.  

"The Europeans see this as an American problem because it is in the
United States' backyard, and yet they criticize U.S. military
involvement," said Miguel Ceballos, director of research on Colombia
at Georgetown University.

Rising European cocaine consumption is escalating fighting in Colombia
by helping the guerrillas buy arms, Ceballos said.

Russian organized crime is reportedly paying for cocaine shipments with 
powerful weapons that are getting to the rebels through Brazil, he 
added.  

"The Europeans are also responsible and must get involved," Ceballos 
said.  

Washington will be represented at Friday's donor conference in Madrid 
by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Thomas Pickering, 
who coordinated U.S. policy on Colombia.  

Colombia's President Andres Pastrana, who devised a $7.5 billion "Plan
Colombia" to curb the drug trade, pacify armed groups and boost
economic development, is looking for a $1 billion aid contribution
from European nations. ---
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MAP posted-by: John Chase