More Countries Take Action in War on Drugs

The United States is winning greater support for its worldwide war on drugs, but producers in Mexico and elsewhere are still turning out more than enough cocaine, marijuana and heroin to meet the demands of American buyers, the State Department said Friday.

Mexico apparently was the top source of marijuana and heroin brought to the United States last year, despite that country’s efforts to attack the trade, the department said in its annual international drug-control report.

Production in Mexico, which for several years had been effectively attacked by airborne agents, was “the principal disappointment in a year in which other programs . . . met or even exceeded our expectations,” it said.

Perennial Leaders Crack Down

Such perennially leading producers as Panama, Belize, Jamaica, Thailand and Burma reportedly improved their anti-drug programs.

Best of all, the report said, Colombia, “once viewed as one of the most difficult countries in narcotics control,” destroyed 85% of the marijuana cultivated along its north coast, the growers’ favorite grounds.

Altogether, 14 important drug-producing countries are now actively destroying drug crops, compared with two nations four years ago, it said.

However, the report said, “The fact remains that worldwide production of illicit opium, coca leaf and cannabis (marijuana) in 1985 was still many times the amount currently consumed by drug abusers” in the United States and elsewhere.