Report Faults Military’s Drug War

A Clinton Administration drug policy review concludes that Defense Department interdiction efforts have largely failed to stem the flow of cocaine in the United States and recommends a refashioning of the international drug effort, according to Administration officials.

The classified review by the National Security Council said that despite $1.1 billion being spent by the Pentagon annually--much of it to detect drug smugglers in the “transit zones” of Central America and the Caribbean--there has been virtually no impact on the availability of cocaine in the United States.

As a result, the sources said, the council has proposed a “controlled shift” that would redirect resources away from interdiction and toward more military aid for operations aimed at dismantling cocaine labs and disrupting trafficking organizations in South America.