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    TH E DRU G SCOURGE

    AS A H EMI SPHERI C PROBL EM

    Gener al Bar r y R. McCaffr ey

    Au gust 2001

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    *****

    The views expressed in t hi s repor t are those of the aut hor and do notnecessari ly refl ect the offi cial policy or posi t ion of the Department of theAr my, t he Depart ment of Defense, or the U.S. Government . Thi s repor tis cleared for publi c release; distr ibution i s unl imi ted.

    *****

    Comments pertaining to this report are invited and should beforwarded to: Director, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War

    College, 122 Forbes Ave., Car lisle, PA 17013-5244. Copies of thi s reportmay be obtained from the Publications Office by calling commercial(717) 245-4133, FAX (717) 245-3820, or via the Internet atRit [email protected] l.

    *****

    Most 1993, 1994, and all later Strategic Studies Institute (SSI)monographs are available on the SSI Homepage for electronic

    dissemination. SSIs Homepage address is: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usassi/welcome.htm.

    *****

    The Strategic Studies Institute publishes a monthly e-mailnewslet ter to update the nat ional secur i ty community on the research ofour analysts, recent and forthcoming publications, and upcomingconferences sponsored by the Insti tut e. Each newslet ter also provides a

    strategic commentary by one of our research analysts. If you areint erested in r eceiving thi s newslet ter , please let us know by e-mail atout reach@carl isle.army.mi l or by call ing (717) 245-3133.

    I SBN 1-58487-063-X

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    FOREWORD

    In this timely monograph, General Barry McCaffrey,USA (Retired), the former Director of National DrugControl Policy, argues that Colombias 40 million citizensmust not be deserted by their neighbors. Leaving theColombians to deal in isolation with a pervasive drugproblem will deeply affect all 800 million of us in theWestern Hemisphere through addiction, violence, andcor rupt ion. Moreover , he argues that the Uni ted States andthe entire international community must support along-term commitment to Plan Colombia and to buildingcooperative multinational approaches to the toughdrug-associated problems that face us all. This is anundertaking in which we all have an equal stake and anequal responsibil i ty.

    This monograph is the last of a special ser ies stemmingfrom a major conference held in Miami, Florida, onFebrua ry 1 -2 , 2001 . Tha t con fe rence , en t i t l edImplementing Plan Colombia : Strategic and OperationalImperatives, was cosponsored by the Dante B. FascellNorth-South Center at the University of Miami and theStrategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College.The int ent was to clarify i ssues, focus the debate, and learnfr om i t . General M cCaffr ey was the keynote speaker at thedinner meeting of that conference. We are pleased tocontribute to a resolution of Colombias, the hemispheres,and the global communitys problems through greaterdialogue and debate.

    DOUGLAS C. LOVEL ACE, JR.DirectorSt rategic Studies I nst i tut e

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    PREFACE

    Retired U.S. Army General Barry R. McCaffrey hasnever been a person t o mince hi s words. In approachi ng themult ifaceted and t ragic dilemma of Colombia, he warns usnot to forget that the problems of that country affect theent ire Western H emisphere. The global cr iminal ent erpriseof the illegal drug industry reaches into all of ourneighborhoods. Yet the Hemi sphere, says McCaffr ey, i s ina state of denial. Until now, drugs have been seen assomeone elses problem.

    When McCaffr ey took off hi s generals uniform in 1996 to join the presidents cabinet as Director of National DrugControl Policy, he laid down two markers which he hasrepeated wi th great consistency. The fi rst is that the drug

    problem i n t hi s count ry should be understood primar ily as aproblem of demand, not supply. The second is that it isinaccur ate to t alk of a war on drugs. Wars, he said shor t lyaft er taking office, can be fought and won i f armi es have theresour ces and the wi ll to fight . Would that the drug problemwere so simpl e. McCaffrey compar es i t more to the search t ocur e cancer . In at t acking the demand side, for which he hadto fight continuously for more congressional funding,McCaffrey can claim success. Adolescent drug use, he point sout , decl ined by 21 percent just over the last 2 years.

    But ul t imate success is not so close at hand. As was thecase of other experts who addressed the Plan Colombia conference in February 2001, McCaffrey recognizes in thismonograph that the crux of t he drug problem in the Uni tedStates is the existence of fi ve mi ll ion hard-core drug users.

    The majority of these are addicted to cocaine. The illegaltrade directed at them alone fuels much of the funding forthe three armed factions which undermine the stability ofColombia and i t s neighbors, not to ment ion the huge level ofcr iminali ty generated in the Uni ted States.

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    As Commander in Chi ef of t he U.S. Sout hern Command,McCaffrey culminated a military career that involvedintimate knowledge of Latin American countries. He wastherefore well placed, dur ing the Clinton administ rati on, tohelp devise an appropr iate U.S. response to Plan Col ombi a .The Congress appropriated an impressive $1.3 billion,thanks to such effor t s. But McCaffr ey is quick to tell us thatthe Colombian and U.S. solutions are inadequate withoutthe ful l suppor t of t he rest of L ati n Amer ica, as well as thatof Europe and Japan. Just as he is optimistic about thedirect ion of t he ant idrug campaign in t he Uni ted States, healso believes that there is a growing degree of i nt ernat ionalcooperation, pointing out the results of the April 2001Summi t of t he Amer icas in Quebec Cit y.

    It is not surprising, of course, that he sees U.S.leadership as the key element in bringing about thatrequi red level of cooperation on a sustained basis. The task

    will need tremendous vision and outreach; McCaffreyspeaks of the potential problems faced within the vastpopulation of China and elsewhere in Asia. His monographleaves the question unanswered, since it is no longer hiswatch as ant idrug czar, as to whether thi s count ry wi ll beup t o that wor ldwide challenge.

    AM BLER H. MOSS, JR.DirectorThe Dant e B. Fascel l Nor th-Sout h

    CenterUniversit y of Miami

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    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    Dur ing my t enur e as Di rector of N ational Dr ug Cont rolPolicy under President Clint on, I was for tunate to have theadvice and assistance of scores of smart, dedicated people,only a few of whom I can ment ion here. They would includeDr . Ambler Moss, Dir ector of t he North-Sout h Cent er at t heUniversity of M iami, a man I ve learned a great deal from;Jeremy Travis and Laur ie Robinson of t he U.S. Departmentof Just ice, who produced some of the best thi nk pieces Iveencountered in government; Dr. Alan Leshner, Director ofthe National Institute of Drug Abuse, who so frequentlysupplied me with the needed facts; and Donna Shalala,Secretary of Health and Human Services, and in my

    judgement, absolutely the finest leader in the Clintonadministration, who sponsored richly productive internaldiscussions on drug policy.

    In addition to the organizations associated with thepeople mentioned in the paragraph above, I want tocommend the cont r ibut ions by the John F. Kennedy Schoolof Government, Harvard Law School, Center for Strategicand International Studies, Substance Abuse and MentalH e a l t h S e r v i c e s A d m i n i s t r a t i o n , J o h n s H o p k i n sUnivers i ty, Univers i ty o f Mich igan , Univers i ty o fMaryland, and Universi ty of California at Los Angeles. Allhave been strong contributors to the seedbed of ideasunder lying U.S. drug st rategy.

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    BI OGRAPHI CAL SK ETCH OF TH E AUTH OR

    GENERAL BARRY R. MCCAFFREY is retired from theU.S. Army. Dur ing the per iod 1972-75, he was an instructorin the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. MilitaryAcademy, West Point , New York. His combat tour s includedaction in the Dominican Republic with the 82nd AirborneDivision in 1965, advisory duty in Vietnam in 1966-67,company command with the 1st Cavalry Division inVietnam in 1968-69, and command of the 24th InfantryDivision dur ing Operation DESERT STORM in the PersianGul f i n 1991 . Gene ra l McCaff r ey was Ass i s t an tCommandant at the U.S. Army Infantry School; DeputyU.S. Representative to NATO; Assistant Chairman, JointChiefs of Staff (JCS); Director of St rategic Plans and Policy,JCS; Commander in Chief, U .S. Sout hern Command; and,following ret i rement fr om t he U.S. Army in 1996, Di rector ofNational Drug Control Policy in the cabinet of PresidentWilliam Cli nt on. Upon l eaving the cabinet in 2001, GeneralMcCaffr ey became the John Oli n Di st inguished Professor ofNational Secur ity Studies at West Point , a posit ion he st i l loccupies as of this writing. General McCaffrey graduatedfrom the U.S. Military Academy in 1964, receiving a B.S.

    degree and a 2nd lieutenants commission in the Infantry.He received an M .A. degree in Government fr om Amer icanUniversity in 1970, and is also a graduate of t he U.S. ArmyCommand and General Staff College and the U.S. ArmyWar College.

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    TH E D RUG SCOURGEAS A HEM I SPH ERI C PROBL EM

    In t roduc t i on .

    Colombias 40 million citizens must not be deserted bytheir neighbors. Leaving the Colombians to deal i n i solationwith a pervasive drug problem will deeply affect all 800mi l lion of us in t he Western H emisphere thr ough addict ion,violence, and corruption. To achieve the degree ofPan-American solidarity suggested by such a thesis, wemust fi r st build a broad consensus that the drug problem i sindeed hemi spher ic in i t s geographical ext ent , long-term inits duration, and broad-spectrum in its consequences.Approaches to the problem must therefore extend beyondsuch familiar objects of interstate cooperation asint el l igence, law enforcement , evidence, chemical precur sorcontrol, gun smuggling, and money launderingthoughthese are vital ly impor tant.

    Our approaches must also grow to acknowledge theenormous social, medical, legal, economic, diplomatic, andsecur ity r everberations that sweep across national bordersand embrace entire populations. Our approaches must

    recognize that the ultimate problem is driven not by thesupply of cocaine and heroin, much of which does indeedcome from the bleeding nation of Colombia, but rather bythe demand. That demand emanates mainly from theUni ted States but also increasingly fr om Br azil , Venezuela,Peru, and even Argentina and Chile. Drug corruption,violence, and addict ion graduall y spread unt il all of us areaffected.

    Obviously, our approaches will require considerabletime to achieve success, and they must involve the activecooperation of t he ent ire community of nations. John Donneonce wi sely r emi nded us that no man is an island. He couldas well have spoken of nat ions themselves, none of which in

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    this crowded world can long escape the contamination ofdrug abuse and violence emanating fr om beyond i t s shoresand borders. This bedrock reality argues for the absoluteessentiality of a multinational focus. For this reason, weshould be very grateful for the engagement of theOrganization of American States (OAS), the Uni ted Nat ions(U.N.), and the European Union (EU), as well as theenergetic and precisely targeted efforts of the Japanesegovernment.

    In the pages that follow, I shall discuss, in turn, thefollowing topics: Plan Colombia , the U.S. drug strategy,international cooperation, and the responsibility ofacademia and the think tanks to cont r ibute to solut ions.

    Plan Colombi a .

    When we look at the nation of Colombia, most

    Americans, accustomed to thinking in terms of the tinyrepubl ics down in Cent ral America, are shocked to discoverits enormous size. If you lay a properly scaled map ofColombia over a map of the contiguous United States, youwill see that Colombia, covering 439,829 square miles, isover a seventh the size of the original 48. Thats a lot ofphysical space to govern and control, considering the fewroads available.

    Colombia is blessed wi th t alent ed, hard-working people,most of whom have nothing to do with the drug trade.Dr awing on i t s Spanish her it age, the count ry enjoys a ri chcul ture, marked par t icular ly by st rong li t erary and judicialtraditions.

    The people of Colombia today, however , fi nd themselvesenmeshed in a singularly unforgiving national tragedy.Some of the cause is historical, rooted in the desperatet ragedy of L a Vi ol enci a , which k i lled 200,000 Colombians ina decade of mindless violence. Some of it is an inability tobreak out of t he implacable cul ture of i nt ernal dist rust thathas t aken r oot , a distrust that poisons all r ealmspoli t ical,

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    economi c, social. Despite thi s, the overwhelmi ng major ity ofColombians are decent people who are appalled by theviolence engulfing their nation. I n fact , the most profoundemot ion one wi ll fi nd among most Colombians is revul siontoward the nations internal violence. They are tryingdesperately to break the cycle of mur der and chaos, but theyneed help. The stark reality is that they are faced withseveral violent groups comprising 26,000 heavily armednarco-insurgents, and I use that term deliberately. TheRevolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), the NationalLiberation Army (ELN), the United Self-Defense Forces ofColombia (AUC), or s imply the mil i t ias , remainnarco-insurgents plain and simple. The money and powergenerated by drugs and rebellion against the establishedorder consti tut e their defining essence.

    Collectively these groups have been showered withenormous sums of moneysomewhere between a

    half-billion and one billion dollars per yeargenerated byone of the most evi l cr imi nal conspir acies ever known. Whenone analyzes the actions of these groups in all theirgruesome detail , we learn that i t is not just bank robbery,kidnapping, extor t ion, dest ruct ion of oi l pipelines, mindlesscivil violence, int imidat ion of civil author it ies, and the l ikewi th which one has to be concerned. I t is also the growi ngmilitary capabilities of the narco-insurgents. We are

    witnessing the appearance of crisp new soldier uniformsand sophisticated weaponry. A FARC battalion, forexample, now packs more automatic weapons than aregular Colombian infantry battalion. These narco-insurgent s now fi eld scores of air craft and helicopters andemploy 120 mm mortars. These are not isolated bands ofguerr il las. They are organized, led, and equipped t o standup and fight, and to challenge civil authority on its ownground. Skeptics should fly to Colombia and look at thestunning military power in Putumayo Province fielded bywarring factions of the drug trade. The contaminatingeffects of the drug-based complex of criminal and violentactivity are by no means confined to Colombia itself, but

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    ripple out to infect the region, as well as U.S. cities likeMiami, San Francisco, New York, and Det roi t . Ul t imately,every street corner in Hometown America becomes atempting target for this global criminal enterprise. Theproblem and the solution do not l ie only with theColombians. The hemi sphere is in a state of denial.

    The Colombians recognize their centrality to the drugproblem and are trying to organize a coherent nationalresponse. They have a viable government and an operat ive

    democracy. They have political parties and hold regularelections. They enjoy a long tradition of economic andpolitical freedom. Perhaps most important, they havestrong political leadership capable of sound strategicthinking. Thi s must not be a U.S. st rategy to solve the drugproblemt he Colombians themselves have to pul l togethera solut ion based on their own polit ical dynamics, and legaland histor ical t radit ions.

    We need to remind ourselves that it was PresidentAndres Pastrana and his government who produced Plan Colombia . They cobbled it together in an extraordinarilycomplex undertaking with our active support. Like mostmeasures in democratic politics, incrementalism andfactional compromise are frequently the characteristics ofsolut ions to large, difficul t problems. Plan Col ombia is notperfectbut the st rategy does represent the deliberate wi l lof the elected Colombian government in a good-faith effortto engage thi s int ractable drug problem.

    The Amer i can t eam who worked c lose ly wi thUndersecretary Tom Pickering and me on Plan Colombia believes it represents a sound, sensible approach, and wecont inue to give i t our suppor t . The Uni ted States has statedconsistently that Colombias regional partners must alsoextend cooperation, goodwill, intelligence, and, in somecases, resources to support a unified regional attack on adrug tumor that has metastasized well beyond i t s or iginalsite.

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    The U.S. commitment of 1.3 bil l ion dollars in suppor t ofPlan Col ombia over the next couple of years is a minisculeprice to pay when measured against the 52,000 Americandeaths and 110 bil l ion dollars in damage att r ibuted to thedomest ic drug scour ge. Many have incor rect ly argued t hatthe U.S. contribution is aimed at a military solution.However , the fact s show that U.S. resour ces fl ow to severalnations besides ColombiaBolivia, Peru, Venezuela,Panama, Ecuador, Curacao, Aruba, and El Salvador.Furthermore, the money is allocated for a variety ofpur poses. For example, more than 240 mi ll ion dollars of t hetotal package is allocated to alternative economicdevelopment , st rengthening the judicial system, suppor t forinternational cooperation, and security for human rightsmonitors.

    Plan Col ombia should be viewed as a work in progress,one that requires cont inued debate, careful monitor ing, and

    mid-course refinements in the light of accumulatingexperience. The plan reflects a broad-gauged attempt tobuild suppor t in t he United States, while at t he same t imesustaining support of Colombias internal polit icalconstituencies. In addition, we should be cautious aboutaccepting some news media critics characterization of thisplan as cont roversial. The U.S. funding suppor t of t he planwas passed by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan

    support.I accompanied President Will iam Cli nt on t o Car tagena,

    Colombia, in 2000 to meet with the senior officials of thePastrana administration. We took with us a bipartisancongressional delegation that included House SpeakerDennis Haster t (Republican) and Senator Joseph Biden, Jr .(Democrat). This visit represented a major effort to

    underscore a ser ious long-term commitment on the part ofthe American political leadership to stand with an ally.Colombians are our fr iends. They l ive r ight next door to us,and they are in trouble. They have a million internallydisplaced people and a half million that have fled thecount ry. Many are in sout h Flor ida, Panama, Canada, and

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    Spain. The Colombians benefit the United Statesenormously. The families are highly accomplished andb r i n g b r i g h t c h i l d r e n , i n v e s t m e n t c a p i t a l , a n dent repreneur ial savvy. However , the resul t ing talent drainfrom Colombia itself compounds that nations problems.There can be no hemispheric solution unless we stop theflow of drugs and money that is driving levels of violencesuch that Colombia is being drained of its most talentedpeople.

    Under the broad umbrella of Plan Colombia , we canexpect steadily increasing resolve and determinat ion on thepart of the armed forces, police, judges, journalists, andlegislators to defend their country and reimpose cont rol overtheir sovereign t er r i tory. I believe the plan i s going to work.I n t he next 2-5 years, we should expect a massive reductionin the production of drugs on Colombian soil and acomparable lower ing of t he level of violence.

    U.S. Dr u g St r ategy .

    Americas own national drug strategy has beendeveloped over the past 5 or so years with the advice andinstruction of some very smart and experienced people. Tocite a single example, I would point to Edward T. Foote I I I ,President of the University of Miami, a distinguished

    educator of wide experience who has helped focus nationaldrug policy on the kinds of prevention, treatment, andcommunity programs that have produced such spectacularresul t s in south Flor ida. Thanks to bipar t isan suppor t fromCongress, we now have huge increases in resources focusedon the right areasprevent ion (an increase of 58 percent in5 years), education, and treatment (an increase of 36percent in 5 years). For example, we are running a

    bil l ion-dollar ant idrug news media campaign t arget ing ouryoung people and their adult ment ors in 11 languages. Ourant idrug campaign is t ail ored uniquely to over 100 separateregional strategies. The hi ghly successful drug cour t systemthat or iginated in sout h Flor ida now serves as the model for

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    other areas of the count ry. Fr om the or iginal dozen, we nowhave over 700 of these special courts on-line or comingon-line this year. More than 200,000 chronic addicts arenow in treatment, and probably some 70 percent or morerespond with dramatically altered drug-taking behavior.

    Our ant idrug campaign i s working. Adolescent drug usein this county has declined by 21 percent over the last 2years alone. The campaign is actually reshaping youthattitudes, which is a precondition to change in youth

    drug-taking behavior. We are also deeply involved inbuilding communi ty antidrug coali t ions around t he Uni tedStates directed toward creat ing business hea l thcare law enforcement educational coalitions. Over 300such federall y funded coali t ionsmany of them absolut elysuperb exampl eshave been pul led t ogether over the past2-plus years. This modest investment in federal money ischanging America. We are definitely moving in the right

    directionAmerica doesnt have a national drug-problem we have a series of community drug epidemics.Dr ug-related cr ime is also down dramati cally. Dr ug-relatedmurders, for example, have declined by 50 percent, whilecasual use of cocaine has declined by 70 percent, both overthe past decade. Drug use among Americans (i.e., usedur ing the mont h pr ior to polling), which stood at about 14percent of the population in 1979, is now down to about 6percent . I t is essent ial, however , to keep up t he pressur e andcont inue a coherent long-term U.S. national st rategy withthe principal focus being on dr ug prevent ion and education.The so-call ed war on drugs, as the pundit s so oft en refer toi t , is not yet won, not by a long shot . Actuall y, the t erm waron drugs is a misnomer in the domestic context. We dontwage war on our own chi ldren and empl oyees who make badpersonal choices and then find themselves trapped in themisery, sickness, and illegality of compulsive drug andalcohol abuse. We need to substitute the more usefulmetaphor of a cancer affecting American communities.This leads us to a more accurate conceptual approach forproducing long-term community solutions and effective

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    prevention and treatment programs backed up byunrelenting local law enforcement.

    Congress has been sensit ive to the nat ions drug problemand willing to underwrite solutions. It has provided, forexample, a 55 percent increase in dollars going toprevention programs over the last 5 years. The researchbudget has r isen by a thi rd, whi le drug t reatment fundinghas gone up by 35 percent during that same period.

    The analysis, organi zat ion, programs, and resour ces areall in place. They are going to pay off. In the meantime,however, we are stuck with five million hard-core addictswho damage our families and communities as theygradually dest roy their own l ives. Some 3.6 mill ion of t heseaddicts became hooked on cocaine primarily during the1980s. I ronically, it was during this per iod that many naveand misguided so-called drug experts argued that cocainewas not an addict ive substance. I t was thus a palpable shockto them and their believers to discover that by the late1980s, nearly four mi l l ion Amer icans were hopelessly andcompulsively using this nonaddictive drug, which hassuch devastating impact on their physical, mental, andmoral health. We now have to deal rationally with theseaddict s, al l five mi l l ion of t hem.

    Of cour se, it s easy t o t alk about providing effect ive drugtreatment for millions of chemically addicted Americans,but actually establ ishing the mechanisms for providing thetreatment is uncommonly hard work. Rhetoric is perhapsuseful at t he beginning, but when matter s come down to thehands-on phase, then skilled drug treatment providers,health-care professionals, social workers, criminal justicerepresentatives, and other community support agenciesmust sit down and put together programs in both clinicaland residential settings. Residential treatment puts apremium upon the tough and essential business oforganizing communi ty follow-on drug t reatment care. Oneof my favor ite such programs is the Vi l lage in Miami. This

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    superb center can serve as a model for what communitydrug treatment endeavors should and can be.

    Our U.S. nati onal drug st rategy is basically on t rack. Wehave a coherent , long-term approach. Even so, the problemof successfully dealing with hard-core addiction is soint ractable that we wi ll have to st ruggle another 10 years tobuild the t reatment infr ast ructur e we need and to allow ourantidrug prevention and education programs to graduallyreduce the rate of new additions to the roster of those

    compulsively using drugs. This shouldnt discourage us.Weve been fighting a campaign against ignorance in thiscount ry for over 200 years and yet we clearly recognize thateducating each generation of adolescents to build antidrugatt i tudes is a never -ending task.

    I n t er na t i onal Cooper at ion .

    The climate of international cooperation on thehemi spher ic drug problem has impr oved dramaticall y overthe past 5-7 years. U.S. drug policy used to be char acter izedb y m u t u a l r e c r i m i n a t i o n w i t h o u r i n t e r n a t i o n a lpartnersparticularly in our own hemisphere. We havehad excellent support from many senior internationalfigur es; for example, Pino Ar lacchi , working the U.N. Dr ugControl Program out of Vienna; Kofi Annan, Secretary-

    General of the U.N.; and Cesar Gavir ia, Secretary-Generalof the OAS. In addition, we have been grateful for thepartnership offered by the Inter-American Drug AbuseControl Commission and the various summit meetings ofnational leaders from the Americas. All of these leadershave shown increased recogni t ion t hat a joint approach t odrugs is absolutely essential if we hope to cooperativelyaddress not only law enforcement and interdictionbut

    also effective cooperative approaches on drug abuseprevent ion, t reatment and r esearch. We now have some 130nat ions that have joined collect ively under U.N. auspices towork to all eviate thi s global t ragedy of dr ug addict ion andviolence.

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    The Uni ted States views it s own campaign against drugsas part of a global st ruggle conducted as an int egral part ofits foreign policy. The 1996 summit of the Americas inSantiago, Chile, with strong U.S. leadership, reached aconsensus to build a common strategy for attacking theproblem. Member nat ions have in fact responded posit ivelyto this mandate. The cooperative approach which wasagreed to by 34 nations in October 1998 in Montevideo,Uruguay, was fur ther sol idif ied during the Quebec Summitof the Americas in April 2001. Thirty-four democraticleaders of t he hemisphere agreed wi th President Bush t hatmultinational cooperation is better than a series of bipolarconfrontations. The OAS is moving in the right direction.We hope that the European Union will also recognize thehard reali t ies of the int ernati onal drug t raffic.

    The U.S. Government has been frank with theEuropeans. We have reminded them of the rapidly rising

    consumption rate by European citizens of heroin, cocaine,methamphetamines, ecstacy, and other drugs. Europe, wi tha land mass and population approximating that of theUni ted States, now sees i t s drug users spendi ng double theprice that Americans pay for a kilogram of cocaine. Webelieve some 200-plus metr ic tons of the drugs were shi ppedinto Europe during the year 2000 alone. There is rapidlygrowing use of cocaine among European youth, which is

    beginning to produce a growing addiction problem. It isgoing to get worse. The Europeans are not paying adequateattent ion to educati ng their cit izens. They like to t alk aboutpolice and intelligence cooperation, military cooperation,and reciprocal ext radit ion pr otocols; but in my view, t heirappreciation of antidrug prevention and education isinadequate.

    I have engaged in some well-documented and frankpublic exchanges of views on the drug question with theDutch and the Swi ss. Personally, I dont bel ieve the Uni tedStates should try too aggressively to change other nationsinternal drug policies so long as those policies are notadversely affect ing our own i nt erest s. But I cer tainly do not

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    want to hear Dutch dr ug legali zat ion suggested as a grandnew model of rational and progressive thinking to beemulated by the United States. Many of us believe it is aninvi tati on t o disaster to be tolerant of dr ug use by Americanchi ldren and society.

    The Pacific Rim countries are also now much moreconstructively engaged in the drug problem. I led aninteragency U.S. delegation to visit such critical states asChina, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, and Thai land for candid

    exchanges of vi ews and informat ion. Thail and is a shiningexample of what government resolve can achieve over aper iod of 15 years in creating honest nat ional counterdrugpolice forces, activating effective national prevention andtreatment programs, and eradicating illicit drug crops.Thail and now cont r ibutes less than 1 percent of t he heroinproduction of the entire region, certainly a remarkablerecord.

    The Chinese, we believe, are taking due notice. Wetraveled to Beijing, Kunming, and Hong Kong, visitingsenior political leaders, treatment centers, and lawenforcement authorities. Burmese heroin is distributedthr oughout China, and i t is also going to Eur ope. We in t heUnited States dont have to be as much concerned aboutBurmese heroin (the great majority of U.S. heroin nowcomes from Colombia and Mexico), but we do need to beconcerned about China as an expansible fut ur e market forthe drug. Some 1.266 billion Chinese engulfed in chronicaddict ion would be a thr eatening and destabil izing regionalsituation. We need to continue to build on the cooperativeagreements with Chinese authorit ies that we firstdiscussed dur ing my June 2000 visit to Beijing. We also hadgood conversations with and the promise of cooperation

    fr om both Vi etnam and Laos. Int ernat ional communi cati onand mutuality of effort will continue to improve if wesustain a skillful and unrelenting diplomatic focus onbuilding mul t inati onal cooperat ion.

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    Responsi bi l i t y of Academi a and t he Thi nk Tank s .

    Our nations policy formulation processwhetherinvolving the economy, agriculture, highway construction,international security, etc.should always include thecontributions of academia, the think tanks, and otherint el lectual cent ers. We need to t ake the t ime to check wi thserious expert thinkers who have reflected on the knottyproblems associated wi th t he various policy themes. We alsoneed to base public policy formulation on sound technicalinput fr om exper t s in specifi c fi elds. We should consult theU.S. Army War College, particularly its Strategic StudiesI nsti tut e, and t he other senior service colleges.

    While we certainly require conceptual clarity, we alsorequi re facts. Facts do not come easily. Policy r ecommenda-t ions must always be grounded on the bedrock of r eali ty.

    Conclusion.

    My long association with the peoples of Latin Americamakes me an optimist. As a young captain serving asaide-de-camp to the Commanding General of U.S. ArmySout h, headquar tered at For t Clayton, Republic of Panama,during 1967-68, I had the unique opportunity to travel toevery country in Central and South America on multiple

    occasions. I learned a lot , soaked up as much of t he cul tur eas possible, and pract iced my halt ing West Point Spanish. Ialso fell in love with the region. Twenty-six years later, Iretur ned as Commander in Chief, U.S. Sout hern Command,repeating my earl ier t ravels to all the count r ies, cont inui ngto learn as much as I could, still practicing my haltingSpanish. When I retired from that position in 1996 and

    joined President Clint ons Cabinet as the civi l ian Director of

    National Drug Control Policy, I continued a personalc o m m i t m e n t t o b u i l d i n g c o o p e r a t i v e , l o n g - t e r mmultinational approaches to the tough economic, political,cul tur al, and cr iminal pr oblems which face the 800 mil lionof us in t he Amer icas.

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    A career-long affection and respect for the culture,institutions, and, above all, the people of this vitalneighbor ing region to our sout h l eaves me feel ing confidentthat our OAS concept of counterdrug cooperat ion will , overtime, help build democratic institutions that will betterserve the interests of our people. My own strong belief isthat we wi ll bet ter serve such i nt erest s i f we cont inue to helpthe people of this region in our hemispheres commonst ruggle against dr ugs. Thi s is an under taking in which weall have an equal stake and an equal r esponsibi li ty.

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    U.S. ARM Y WAR COL L EGE

    M ajor Gener al Rober t R. I vanyCommandant

    *****

    STRATE GIC STUD I ES I NSTI TUT E

    DirectorPr ofessor Dou glas C. L ovelace, J r .

    Di r ector of Resear chDr . St even M et z

    AuthorGener al Bar r y R. M cCaffr ey, USA Ret i r ed

    Dir ector of Publ i cat ionsM s. M ar i anne P. Cow li ng

    Pu bli cat i ons Assi st antM s. Ri t a A. Ru mm el

    *****

    Composit ionM r s. Chr i st i ne A. Wi l l i ams


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