Pubdate: Fri, 26 Aug 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/

COLOMBIAN SENATOR SAYS COLLEAGUES DEALING COCAINE

Colombian congressmen are not only using cocaine but buying it in the
Congress building, a senior Colombian senator has claimed.

Although selling cocaine is illegal in Colombia, possession of small doses
for personal use is not.

"I know names of people who distribute cocaine here in Congress," Senator
Edgar Artunduaga told local RCN television.

"There are important officials who distribute and senators and
representatives who consume," said Mr Artunduaga, who is deputy speaker of
the Senate.

Asked whether he would name names, the senator said: "I'm thinking about
doing that, with the concern that a number of members of Congress will have
to testify to the authorities."

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine and the Government has
received more than $US3 billion in mainly US military aid since 2000 to
stamp out the drug trade.

With the government's efforts to stamp out the drug trade, which generates
the money to buy bullets for Marxist rebels and far-right paramilitaries,
any politician caught using it would be engulfed in scandal.

As in many US and European cities, cocaine is easy to find in Colombia and
its use common but it is much cheaper.

- -Reuters
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