Summit Meeting on Drugs

A summit meeting involving President Bush and the presidents of the three South American countries that grow and export most of the region’s cocaine is essential to the success of Washington’s campaign against drugs. But U.S. officials must be prepared hear very different views on how best to conduct the campaign.

The request for the meeting came from Presidents Alan Garcia of Peru, Jaime Paz Zamora of Bolivia and Virgilio Barco Vargas of Colombia. Peru and Bolivia grow about 80% of the coca leaves from which the world’s cocaine supply is produced. Colombia is home to the drug rings that produce the drug and smuggle it into the United States and Europe. Bush agreed to the call at once and White House spokesmen said they believe it can be held within 90 days, the time limit set by the Latin American presidents.

The summit would give the presidents an opportunity to forge a joint strategy againstnarcotics traffic. But while all of them will agree that cocaine spawns murder and violence and threatens the health of thousands of users, it will not be so easy to agree on a joint strategy.

In Bush’s recent speech on drug abuse, plus subsequent pronouncements by U.S. officials, the emphasis has been on stopping drugs at the source, either on the coca farms of Peru and Bolivia or the production centers in Colombia. When Latin Americans discuss the issue, however, they stress that the problem began with a demand for cocaine and other illicit drugs in the United States and other wealthy, industrialized nations. Latin American experts also argue that legitimate coca production has been part of Andean culture since the days of the Incas, so it may be impossible to root it out, and would be politically and economically risky to even try. The presidents must look for their joint strategy somewhere between those two divergent views of the drug problem.