Colombia’s Cocaine Production Climbs

Even as they unveiled an optimistic plan for combating drug abuse in the next decade, federal officials disclosed Monday that they have seen an alarming new “explosion” of cocaine production in Colombia.

Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said that cultivation of cocaine has jumped 26% in the last year in Colombia, with signs of an increase in opium production there as well.

The troubling trend has threatened to cut deeply into the dramatic gains made recently in stemming drug trafficking in the Andean region--particularly in Peru and Bolivia, McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey blamed the Colombian upturn in part on the fact that heavily armed paramilitary groups now effectively control about 40% of the nation, tying the hands of President Andres Pastrana and his young administration. “The problem that President Pastrana and his team face is enormous and it’s getting worse,” McCaffrey said.

The general stressed, however, that Pastrana’s administration has demonstrated “a tremendous sense of partnership” with the United States and a strong commitment to curtailing drug production.

That sentiment could prove a key factor next month, when it comes time for the Clinton administration to certify whether Colombia and other nations have cooperated in anti-narcotics efforts. Colombia’s status was upgraded last year after two years of economic penalties. Colombian officials had no immediate reaction Monday to McCaffrey’s comments.

McCaffrey, speaking at a news briefing, refused to elaborate on some elements of the Colombian situation until his office can put out a more detailed analysis in the next few days.

In fact, the Colombian issue drew no mention from top Clinton administration officials at a White House ceremony, as they presented a long-term plan for controlling drugs in the United States.

Addressing several hundred supporters before a backdrop of colorful anti-drug displays, Vice President Al Gore and other officials stressed that the nation must not ease up in the drug war, despite recent gains in quelling drug use among young people and other problem groups.

“When drug dealers still roam our streets and rob our children of their dreams, and drug-related crime still ravages so many of our neighborhoods, we know that we have barely begun,” Gore said. “We must do so much more.”

As part of $17.8 billion in anti-drug funding proposed in President Clinton’s recent budget plan, the drug control office strategy seeks a 50% reduction in drug use and availability by 2007.

It offers a multi-pronged approach through education, prosecution, treatment, interdiction and other means, and it establishes 97 “performance targets” to track how well those measures are working.

“We’re going to hold ourselves to achieving absolute results,” McCaffrey told the gathering.

But some anti-drug groups and Republican lawmakers were clearly unimpressed, saying they feel the White House’s priorities are misplaced.

“More of the same failed policies,” was the reaction from the Lindesmith Center, a drug research group based in New York.

The group said that federal officials should rely more heavily on proven treatment programs, instead of pumping more money into a “bottomless pit” of failed programs, including a $195-million allotment this year for slick celebrity advertisements urging young people to stay off drugs.

“We’re just really disappointed with all this,” Lindesmith spokesman Ty Trippet said. “We’ve seen no clear benefits from these ads. It’s a big PR campaign.”